Madam, - I wouldn't normally respond to a review, but there are a couple of points in Christine Dwyer Hickey's piece about my book, Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Book Reviews, April 19th), that I wanted to comment on.
She suggests I was going through nothing more than a "rough patch in my personal life"that had much to do with "alcohol or some other factor, hormones perhaps".
Her conclusion is that I needed a "good kick up the you-know-what" rather than anti-depressants and/or therapy.
This displays a lack of understanding of mental health problems. It implies that someone is entitled to be depressed or anxious and seek help only if they have suffered a major traumatic event. Sadly, as millions of people who have experienced depression and anxiety will tell you, this is simply not the case. It is this intolerant, unsympathetic, misinformed attitude that makes it so difficult for people to ask for help.
Secondly, the reviewer highlighted my sister's diagnosis diagnosed with a brain tumour, when I was 15. She expressed disbelief and disgust that I somehow managed to "make this tragedy my own". Again, this shows such a lack of understanding of the complexities of sibling relationships and the irrational, illogical feelings that children and adolescents can have.
She concluded that the underlying message was always the same: "If only Martin had a man all would be well". Perhaps she didn't make it to the end. If she had, she would have realised that the overall message was in fact the complete opposite.
Anyone who writes a memoir will always stand accused of
self-obsession. Maybe some of that charge is justified. But I hoped
the book would strike a chord with some other women, as it has
done, and make them think not about me but about their own lives. -
Yours, etc,
LORNA MARTIN,
Glasgow.