Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"How are you?"
"I'm okay."
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. Things are just... overwhelming."
Following on from her MARBLES: MANIA, DEPRESSION, MICHAELANGELO & ME in which she talked about her experiences with mental illness with remarkable candour, Ellen Forney returns, this time with the aim of providing fellow suffers with an insight into her own personal blueprint for surviving, indeed thriving, in the face of such adversity.
We still get some revealing personal anecdotes in comics form to help illustrate a pertinent painful point or two, often surprisingly humorous in nature, but the accompanying primary body of material here is squarely aimed at directly helping people through analysing Ellen's own experiences and what has, and hasn't, worked for her.
Thus, with chapters on therapy, coping tools and strategies, dealing with insomnia, medication, warning signs, where to engage with like-minded people and book-ending chapters covering the basics and some general encouragement, this is effectively Ellen's own survival guide to Bipolar Disorder, though as she comments in the first chapter, it is also relevant for any mood disturbance.
The physiological wheres and whyfores surrounding the causes of such issues are dealt with just as clearly here as in Steve Haines' and Sophie Standing's excellent ANXIETY IS REALLY STRANGE. But where ROCK STEADY really comes into its own is in the practical, often hard-won, insight and advice Ellen is then able to offer on the various topics mentioned above. It's extensive in scope, and should provide a useful toolkit for anyone needing to tinker under their own proverbial hoods, either independently or under the guidance of an appropriate medical professional - something which Ellen also touches on.
I would heartily concur that, as the sub-title proclaims, this advice is indeed brilliant.
I think that knowing one isn't alone is an important part of having the confidence to try and deal with one's mental suffering. Yes, it can be incredibly difficult to even conceive of trying to open up and look forward, go deeper into one's problems, instead of turning away and hiding from them, but knowing that other people have been where you have been before, and managed to progress towards a degree of stability, is an immensely important fillip. There is indeed an entire chapter devoted to that subject. The whole book will form another very valuable part of the ever burgeoning canon of comics and graphic novels dedicated to helping educate about and support our mental health.
Into Page 45's Mental Health Section this, therefore, goes.
