Reading this book may just leave you screaming for Lithium. Taking us viscerally into her mammoth fears, great energy, deep sadness, and often indignant spirit, Carol Coussons de Reyes chronicles her personal journey with bipolar disorder. While other memoirs have given us an intellectual understanding of mental illness, Carol guides us, without mercy, through her life as it hits its strongest intensities. The spiral begins as we see through the eyes and heart of a woman who fears she is being poisoned and gassed, tailed by the FBI, watched by the Army, and associated with a CIA assassin. Although Carol seeks treatment, and is involuntarily hospitalized several times, she shines a light on the inhumane treatment she receives and the community's approach to mental illness. In doing so, she helps begin to erase the stigmas and discrimination in today's society and create hope. By sharing her story, Carol allows us to see that her recovery was by no means linear, but was achieved on her own terms. Falling into Peaces is ultimately about triumph as Carol not only finds her own sense of peace but joins with national leaders that create new and innovative roads to wellness.
