Karen’s journey lends a singular window into her intriguing experiences with mental health challenges and navigating a stigmatizing mental health system. From her growing up with a challenging background and enduring eleven psychiatric unit visits, Karen weaves a deeply thoughtful and self-aware perspective to how language and travel each mirror the movement of psychosis: from psychotic language, and the journey of sane to insane to sane again. Love can be the tool that renders these changes. Karen’s parents did not teach her how to build healthy intimate relationships. The overwhelming emotions of rejection led Karen to hospitalizations. She persists in her relentless search for love, both locally and abroad. Karen travels to Europe, India, and Japan to explore the diverse meaning of the word “crazy,” not only embedded in the English language, but also in French, German, Japanese, and Tamil. Local Journey: A Memoir of Learning to Love brings home the meaning of how craziness can be a game changer in the fabric of the map of the world.

 

Overcoming adversities and achieving success to reach the other side of the mental health journey permeate these pages. Overall, success is achieved in Karen’s life. Readers will applaud the tenacity and determination that Karen has displayed throughout her life. Courage and strength appear on every page of this memoir. Local Journey: A Memoir of Learning to Love is a must-read for those examining their life choices and wishing to achieve success in their paths of struggling with a history of mental health.