Suzan Digh
For many LGBTQIA+ people, coming out is not easy. For some, it is horrific. This story (told in poetry/vignettes) explores the experiences of a girl who was put into psychiatric care shortly after coming out as lesbian. This 'care' started with psychiatric medication and ended with her involuntary psychiatric hospitalization where she was treated with electroconvulsive (shock) therapy - with parental consent - at the age of 16. She is in Canada, where medical care is free.This experience was fundamental in shaping the subsequent decade of her life, and the choices she made. The poems and vignettes in this book primarily come from the notes/journals she kept throughout. It was pretty close to a decade after shock therapy (ECT) ended before she overcame the shattering this treatment caused: firstly as a direct result of the medical interventions themselves and secondly as a result of her unhealthy choices in coping mechanisms (sex, drugs and alcohol). Electroconvulsive therapy is a dark thing. Psychological trauma is a very dark thing. The story is intended to be cathartic, but the wade through the darkness is... well.. dark. The author wants the story to be shared, spread, known - if it helps even one LGBTQIA+ person to know that hope exists outside the trauma... it is a success.
