Elyn Saks: Fighting the Greatest Battle of All
Abnormal Psychology 152
Section 23(Shelly)
Ellen Kuo
Fighting the Greatest Battle of All
According to Elyn Saks' autobiography, she was born in Miami during the 1950's. She grew up in a happy family where she had very loving middle-class parents and two younger brothers (Saks, 2007). Because she was the oldest child, Elyn wanted to excel at everything, be the perfect model for her brothers, and make parents proud. She started having OCD tendencies when she was eight years old, which later developed into paranoia. As her obsession got worse, she started having recurring delusions of a man standing outside her house waiting to kill her and her family. Aside from OCD and paranoia, she also struggled with anorexia - a eating disorder - and lost a lot of weight. During high school, she experimented with low-level recreational drugs and her parents reacted by admitting her to a rehabilitation center. She became quite withdrawn at school and kept to herself mostly. Once, she read a book where the main character was mentally ill and she related to it in such a way that caused her to have a schizophrenic breakdown. She was 16 years old at the time (Saks, 2007). She got accepted into Vanderbilt university after graduating from high school. Elyn noted in her book that when she first started college, she had a very difficult time adjusting to the new environment, which led to depression (Saks, 2007). Depression, on the other hand, led her to become more and more disorganized. She started having strange thoughts and hearing voices around this time too, with occasional bouts of acute psychosis. Even so, she still graduated with excellent grades and made with some lifelong friends. After her undergrad from Vanderbilt, she got into Oxford's graduate program under philosophy. At this time, her struggle with her illness started getting worse. Luckily, during her years in England she was able to receive one of the best treatments in the world, which was crucial for her
Section 23(Shelly)
Ellen Kuo
Fighting the Greatest Battle of All
According to Elyn Saks' autobiography, she was born in Miami during the 1950's. She grew up in a happy family where she had very loving middle-class parents and two younger brothers (Saks, 2007). Because she was the oldest child, Elyn wanted to excel at everything, be the perfect model for her brothers, and make parents proud. She started having OCD tendencies when she was eight years old, which later developed into paranoia. As her obsession got worse, she started having recurring delusions of a man standing outside her house waiting to kill her and her family. Aside from OCD and paranoia, she also struggled with anorexia - a eating disorder - and lost a lot of weight. During high school, she experimented with low-level recreational drugs and her parents reacted by admitting her to a rehabilitation center. She became quite withdrawn at school and kept to herself mostly. Once, she read a book where the main character was mentally ill and she related to it in such a way that caused her to have a schizophrenic breakdown. She was 16 years old at the time (Saks, 2007). She got accepted into Vanderbilt university after graduating from high school. Elyn noted in her book that when she first started college, she had a very difficult time adjusting to the new environment, which led to depression (Saks, 2007). Depression, on the other hand, led her to become more and more disorganized. She started having strange thoughts and hearing voices around this time too, with occasional bouts of acute psychosis. Even so, she still graduated with excellent grades and made with some lifelong friends. After her undergrad from Vanderbilt, she got into Oxford's graduate program under philosophy. At this time, her struggle with her illness started getting worse. Luckily, during her years in England she was able to receive one of the best treatments in the world, which was crucial for her
References: Saks, E. R. (2007). The center cannot hold: My journey through madness. New York: Hyperion. N, Natsuaki. (2013, February). Psychotic Disorders. Lecture conducted from University of California Riverside, California, CA.