Ariane Beeston smashes the romantic myth of motherhood in her memoir Because I’m Not Myself, You See . In 20 short, gripping, sad and moving chapters, Beeston explains her frightening experience of postpartum psychosis and depressive illness as a new young mother. Beeston is a Sydney-based writer and psychologist who formerly worked in child protection.
Her memoir shares an enormous field of knowledge, lived experience and memories, including reflections and conversations with people who supported her through episodes of mental illness following the birth of her son, Henry, in 2011. Review: Because I’m Not Myself, You See – Ariane Beeston (BlackInc) Beeston first experienced symptoms of perinatal distress soon after his birth, which worsened over time. Baby Hen, as she calls him, appears to her as a dragon when he is a few months old, only three weeks after she returns to child protection casework.
I’m on my way home from work when my baby turns into a dragon. We are standing at the lights of a busy intersection, waiting to cross the road. [.
..] It’s not the first time it’s happened.
I’ve seen dragons before – in the cot, the swings, the highchair. But this one is angry and fierce and red. Passages like this one are powerful and make this a brave book.
It is also a generous book, allowing vulnerability and openness about postnatal mental illness to act as a flash point for other parents, mostly women, to see themselves in her story. Most of all, it reveals the.
