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I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying
I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays | Bassey Ikpi
7 posts | 8 read | 13 to read
A deeply personal collection of essays exploring Nigerian-American author Bassey Ikpis experiences navigating Bipolar II and anxiety throughout the course of her life. Bassey Ikpi was born in Nigeria in 1976. Four years later, she and her mother joined her father in Stillwater, Oklahoma a move that would be anxiety ridden for any child, but especially for Bassey. Her early years in America would come to be defined by tension: an assimilation further complicated by bipolar II and anxiety that would go undiagnosed for decades. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO's Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, channeling her experiences into art. But something wasnt rightbeneath the faade of the confident performer, Basseys mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II. Determined to learn from her experiencesand share them with othersBassey became a mental health advocate and has spent the fourteen years since her diagnosis examining the ways mental health is inextricably intertwined with every facet of ourselves and our lives. Viscerally raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we areand the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie.
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effani
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I read this book for the #ReadHarder2021 task “a book that demystifies a common mental illness“, but I'm honestly torn about that. Ikpi writes beautifully about her experience with bipolar disorder, but I don't feel any less mystified than I did before reading it. I think the experience of mental illness might just be impossible to demystify to people who don't have that particular illness.

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AceNoFace
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Families are complicated. This collection of essays will bring up more than a few feelings for anyone who loves their dysfunctional family. So many things to talk about in therapy! So interesting to hear an unreliable narrator in a memoir, who owns that her memories may be flawed but they've shaped who she is. Descriptions of mental health issues were frank, which the world could use more of!

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Owlizabeth
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I‘m always worried reading memoirs about mental illness because they seem to stir my own broken brain in uncomfortable ways and this was no different. Beautifully written, emotionally raw and brutally honest, my crazy definitely responded to Bassey‘s journey. Recommend if you want to know how disordered our brains can be, especially if you love someone who struggles. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

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Owlizabeth
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Thanks to @Lacythebookworm for my awesome #LGPOG #secretsanta package!! Much love to you all on this, and every, day!

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Lindy
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A powerful and moving collection of autobiographical essays about living with bipolar II illness. The style reminded me a lot of Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot. #Audiobook narrated by the author. #OwnVoices #MentalHealth

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Lindy
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When anxiety about something I know I cannot change presents itself, I lie in bed and reimagine it. I turn the purple bruises of memory into lipstick-stained kisses, the crushing weight of life into neck-nuzzling embraces.

(Image from “Fighting Normal,” an art & poetry installation about mental illness & queerness, by Amy Willans & Laurie MacFayden)

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8little_paws
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I listened on hoopla but wish I read print, some sentences you'll want to linger over. This chronicles her bipolar II diagnosis and treatment and that part can be extremely painful to read about. I admit it was a little bit of a slow start but I ended up very interested.

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