About this item
Highlights
- Have you ever questioned the truths behind a seemingly ordinary life?An Apparently Normal Person takes you on a captivating journey through the depths of trauma, resilience and the power of the human spirit.
- Author(s): Bonnie R Armstrong
- 340 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Medical (incl. Patients)
Description
About the Book
An Apparently Normal Person takes you on a captivating journey through the depths of trauma, resilience and the power of the human spirit.
Book Synopsis
Have you ever questioned the truths behind a seemingly ordinary life?An Apparently Normal Person takes you on a captivating journey through the depths of trauma, resilience and the power of the human spirit. In this inspiring memoir, Bonnie Armstrong unveils the uncharted territory of her dissociation, a survival mechanism that became a catalyst for healing.
At the height of an accomplished professional career, an inexplicable illness hints at a connection to a forgotten suicide attempt decades earlier. The author is led to unravel the enigma of her past. What follows is the revelation of a secret internal community that helped her function in the face of unspeakable suffering.
This book offers hope to the two-thirds of adults who have experienced some type of childhood trauma. More than a story, it's a testament to the transformative path from darkness to wholeness.
Brave, raw and ultimately uplifting, An Apparently Normal Person serves as a beacon of hope for those seeking solace and healing from hidden pain.
Review Quotes
Of the many published personal works on dissociative disorders, there's not a better, more insightful account than this one. Engaging, sincere and sometimes shocking, I was hooked from the start and wanted every detail. The author shares her extraordinary and complex life with clarity, sincerity, dignity and love.
-Dr. Chris Downs, psychologist and author
In An Apparently Normal Person, Bonnie Armstrong lives a full life, devoted to a career in child advocacy. But when she's plagued by a series of physical ailments unresponsive to treatment, she begins a journey of uncovering and unraveling unspeakable childhood trauma.
Armstrong provides readers with an in-depth look at a world unknown to most. Through the sharing of her story, Bonnie leaves us with an important legacy of breaking down the stigma of a mental health diagnosis. While it's difficult to read some of the painful details, Bonnie Armstrong's vulnerable and honest writing makes it an easy read. This fascinating, enlightening and profound memoir has moved me to my core. Above all, she has shown me the resilience and power of the human spirit.
-Merle R. Saferstein, author of Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vols. l and ll
An Apparently Normal Person is a searching memoir of medical mystery, self-discovery, and harrowing honesty as Bonnie Armstrong works to uncover the source of her physical and mental afflictions. As her life is upended, it becomes clear that overwhelming trauma has reshaped both her body and her brain.
The author's searing story invites the reader into a struggle to learn the terrain of complex trauma and recovery. We share her disbelief and her determination as her story unfolds in a page-turning series of advances and setbacks.
Armstrong's writing is personal and steeped in deep feelings as she comes to understand her dissociative disorder has saved her life. The stigma of speaking out about one's lived experience with a mental health diagnosis is transformed into her superpower in her triumphant memoir, An Apparently Normal Person.
-Catherine Klatzker, RN, author of You Will Never Be Normal
Bonnie Armstrong's book, An Apparently Normal Person, is a tour de force of courageous storytelling and information, a memoir that offers a path to hope and healing for those who suffer from buried traumatic experiences. Bonnie reveals her personal story, her quest for healing, and the spiritual and scientific ways that mind, body and soul can be reconnected.
-Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains
I couldn't put this book down! With each page of An Apparently Normal Person, Bonnie's unique story unfolds into a journey of self-discovery that anyone can relate to. Through accounts of trauma and adventure, she balances educating the reader with keeping them inspired and hopeful. I learned so much and would highly recommend Bonnie's story to therapists and anyone who is in therapy as a resource for understanding the role of dissociation as an adaptive response to trauma.
-Andi Fetzner, PsyD, partner in Origins Training and Consulting