OT: "And I Don't Want to Live This Life" - (book)
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Vancouver, BC
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OT: "And I Don't Want to Live This Life" - (book)
Has anyone read this book? It's a biography of Nancy Spungen (who was the girlfriend of Sid Vicious) written by her mother.
As I read this book I am really rather blown away by the similarities described by her mother and described by MY mother (about my sister). Like Nancy Spungen, my sister had a somewhat traumatic birth (she was oxygen deprived for a few minutes) and suffered some mild physical results of that (a crossed eye that was corrected, a weakness in one side of her body). And, she had behavioural problems from infancy onward just like my sister (as reported by teachers at school, babysitters, friends, etc.) culminating in drug problems and self-destructive behaviours in adulthood. I'm really interested in this commonality between the traumatic births. It makes me wonder what kind of brain damage might exist... and if it's possible to do something about it.
It's not a brilliant book (in my opinion) but it's certainly interesting to see all the parallels. The only thing that's bothering me is that I know where it's all leading (Nancy Spungen was murdered).
I'm sad because I think, if nothing changes, my sister will not live a long life either, and will meet a tragic end.
As I read this book I am really rather blown away by the similarities described by her mother and described by MY mother (about my sister). Like Nancy Spungen, my sister had a somewhat traumatic birth (she was oxygen deprived for a few minutes) and suffered some mild physical results of that (a crossed eye that was corrected, a weakness in one side of her body). And, she had behavioural problems from infancy onward just like my sister (as reported by teachers at school, babysitters, friends, etc.) culminating in drug problems and self-destructive behaviours in adulthood. I'm really interested in this commonality between the traumatic births. It makes me wonder what kind of brain damage might exist... and if it's possible to do something about it.
It's not a brilliant book (in my opinion) but it's certainly interesting to see all the parallels. The only thing that's bothering me is that I know where it's all leading (Nancy Spungen was murdered).
I'm sad because I think, if nothing changes, my sister will not live a long life either, and will meet a tragic end.
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Hackettstown, NJ
Posts: 692
If I remember the movie, it more like assisted suicide than murder.
Be that as it may, try to keep the faith when it comes to your sister. what helps me with those fears (one thing amoung several that do) is something my husband's therapist said:
Imagine addiction like a card game. There are many "get high" cards, several "go to jail" cards, "wreck a car" cards, "ruin a relationship" cards, " go to the ER" cards, etc, etc. There is also a "death" card and a "recovery" card. Until the "death" card is played, the game is not over no matter what happens. The "recovery" card also remains in the deck and can be played at any time!
This helped me a lot in dealing with my AD and the fear.
Be that as it may, try to keep the faith when it comes to your sister. what helps me with those fears (one thing amoung several that do) is something my husband's therapist said:
Imagine addiction like a card game. There are many "get high" cards, several "go to jail" cards, "wreck a car" cards, "ruin a relationship" cards, " go to the ER" cards, etc, etc. There is also a "death" card and a "recovery" card. Until the "death" card is played, the game is not over no matter what happens. The "recovery" card also remains in the deck and can be played at any time!
This helped me a lot in dealing with my AD and the fear.
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 1,453
I dont know about traumatic birth but i do know that with any type of chronic illness there is a much higher chance that they will suffer depression and other mental illnesses.
I find the human body amazing and expecially the brain so have watch/read a lot of the development - its helped me understand myself better. I would suspect that oxygen depravation could have some serious effects on the brain. If she has physical weakness then obviously there was some brain damage - if it were in the portions of the brain that deal with behavior - then i think it makes perfect sense. It would be interesting to see if they did brain scans at the time of birth and what areas they saw had damage - then compare it to a standard map of the brain to see if it were the same areas that affect our behaviors. Now whether or not anything could ever be done about that i would suspect is debateable. There may be things you could do to try to but the older we get the harder it is to make changes in the brain patterns. I watch a lot of educational tv and I have seen some very good ones on brain development (history channel) and how we hard wire our brains. All of these shows have also discussed addiction and show what happens in brain damage so it might be interesting to check out if they come on your stations.
I find the human body amazing and expecially the brain so have watch/read a lot of the development - its helped me understand myself better. I would suspect that oxygen depravation could have some serious effects on the brain. If she has physical weakness then obviously there was some brain damage - if it were in the portions of the brain that deal with behavior - then i think it makes perfect sense. It would be interesting to see if they did brain scans at the time of birth and what areas they saw had damage - then compare it to a standard map of the brain to see if it were the same areas that affect our behaviors. Now whether or not anything could ever be done about that i would suspect is debateable. There may be things you could do to try to but the older we get the harder it is to make changes in the brain patterns. I watch a lot of educational tv and I have seen some very good ones on brain development (history channel) and how we hard wire our brains. All of these shows have also discussed addiction and show what happens in brain damage so it might be interesting to check out if they come on your stations.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Way out of Town, MI
Posts: 103
I have not read this book but I think I will look at the library for it. I, personally, have spent so much time trying to figure out the reasons for my AS behavior that I failed to see what the real affect on all of us could be. It is still a struggle for me to stop trying to find the root cause. Maybe there will always be a part of me that feels a smidgen of it is me and that is what I really need to read about!
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