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Alone in the Crowd
This is a real life story of an ultimate survivor. After exchanging a life of a fugitive in war-torn Ethiopia for the life of a refugee in Canada... Zerom is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, experiencing discrimination, victimization, disenfranchisement, and the loneliness of suffering from the stigma of mental illness. He writes about his 20 years as a psychiatric patient at a forensic unit.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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April 23, 2012
Zerom Seyoum gives a rare inside view of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in British Columbia. After being a patient there for twenty years, he writes vignettes with honesty and sometimes humour about the painful truths about the patients, staff and the system. Stories of suicide, drug-dealing, addiction, prejudice, and lost hope are part of the futile existence at this facility. Some events are sad, shocking and bleak but there are some positive moments as well.
Some patients may steal, scam or intimidate others. Security cameras and fences surround the hospital grounds. The dreaded Side Room is used as an isolation chamber. He writes that people with mental illness may never regain the level of cognitive ability they had before the onset of their illness, making educational or work prospects limited. But imagine how it feels to be released after twenty years. After persevering for so long, I sensed he wasn't hardened or judgmental, but accepting and grateful for good things in his life. His story is remarkable- he is a true survivor.
Seyoum's prose style is slightly repetitive but he has improved as a writer after his first book Not Guilty but Not Free. In his conclusion, he offers some recommendations around rehabilitation and the system.
Some patients may steal, scam or intimidate others. Security cameras and fences surround the hospital grounds. The dreaded Side Room is used as an isolation chamber. He writes that people with mental illness may never regain the level of cognitive ability they had before the onset of their illness, making educational or work prospects limited. But imagine how it feels to be released after twenty years. After persevering for so long, I sensed he wasn't hardened or judgmental, but accepting and grateful for good things in his life. His story is remarkable- he is a true survivor.
Seyoum's prose style is slightly repetitive but he has improved as a writer after his first book Not Guilty but Not Free. In his conclusion, he offers some recommendations around rehabilitation and the system.
Displaying 1 of 1 review