I Don't Want to Be Crazy

by Samantha Schutz

Overview

A harrowing, remarkable poetry memoir about one girl's struggle with anxiety disorder.

A harrowing, remarkable poetry memoir about one girl's struggle with anxiety disorder.This is a true story of growing up, breaking down, and coming to grips with a psychological disorder. When Samantha Schutz first left home for college, she was excited by the possibilities -- freedom from parents, freedom from a boyfriend who was reckless with her affections, freedom from the person she was supposed to be. At first, she revelled in the independence. . . but as pressures increased, she began to suffer anxiety attacks that would leave her mentally shaken and physically incapacitated. Thus began a hard road of discovery and coping, powerfully rendered in this poetry memoir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545231725
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/01/2010
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	181 KB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Samantha Schutz is the author of the acclaimed memoir I Don't Want to Be Crazy, which was a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens and a Voices of Youth Advocates Poetry Pick. You Are Not Here was her first novel. Samantha lives and works in New York City as a children's book editor.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 9 Up
In this "memoir in verse," Schutz comes to terms with an anxiety disorder that surfaced and plagued her throughout and after her college years. Readers accompany the author from the summer after high school, through college, on a semester abroad in Paris, and into her first job after graduation. Typical early-adulthood issues such as boyfriends, sex, drinking, grades, and family are woven throughout her struggle with physically and mentally debilitating panic attacks. The author had the courage and wisdom to seek professional help and embarked on a long and often bumpy road to treating her disorder. The decision to write in verse proves fitting; in the scenes in which a panic attack is approaching, for example, the short lines of text echo the breathless terror described within. Though the book begins to feel repetitive toward its conclusion, the repetition simultaneously reflects the cyclical nature of Schutz's disorder and one's college years. Aptly, the book ends without absolute closure, and while luckily not all teens will find themselves in identical situations, many young people transitioning to adulthood will find a part of themselves in this overwhelming, and seemingly never-ending, search for self-identity.
—Jill Heritage MazaCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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