Im Telling the Truth, but Im Lying

Posted on 12 December 2017 by Bassey Ikpi

A deeply personal collection of essays exploring Nigerian American author Bassey Ikpi s 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 wasn t right beneath the fa ade of the confident performer, Bassey s 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 experiences and share them with others Bassey 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 are and the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie. Download Im Telling the Truth, but Im Lying – kino-fada.fr Look, I ve been reading Bassey Ikpi s work for a smooth ten years, thanks to the Internet She s been a vital voice for so many of us who live with neurodivergence, throughout our darkest moments, whispering for us to allow ourselves morning She s even mentioned by name in Freshwater Now, this book of hers, this collection It blew me the entire fuck away It s brilliant, intimate, and so vulnerable Bassey is a storyteller to her bones and it shows Read this book, tell everyone you know to r Look, I ve been reading Bassey Ikpi s work for a smooth ten years, thanks to the Internet She s been a vital voice for so many of us who live with neurodivergence, throughout our darkest moments, whispering for us to allow ourselves morning She s even mentioned by name in Freshwater Now, this book of hers, this collection It blew me the entire f...I started reading this the day I got my ARC from the publishers, and I had a hard time putting it down to do basic things like eat and sleep and breathe This was such an incredible memoir, with Bassey Ikpi being as upfront about her lack of memories as is possible to be I thought she did a stunning and honest job of weaving something out of the vague possibly false memories of her childhood, and the stories she has heard about her life since The second half of the book deals with her strug I started reading this the day I got my ARC from the publishers, and I had a hard time putting it down to do basic things like eat and sleep and breathe This was such an incredible memoir, with Bassey Ikpi being as upfront about her lack of memories as is possible to be I thought she did a stunning and honest job of weaving something out of the vague possi...I have never read a memoir quite like this Such powerful prose, almost poetic in how it engaged not just my mind but also my soul I could not put this down it just held on to me and I ripped through in two evenings While I haven t experienced much of what Bassey Ikpi has, she tells her story in such a raw and riveting way that I felt her journey in my being I learned so much about mental illness, as she has experienced it, and about myself, in all the ways in which Bassey s journey speaks I have never read a memoir quite like this Such powerful prose, almost poetic in how it engaged not just my mind but also my soul I could not put this down it just held on to me and I ripped through in two evenings While I haven t experienced much of what Bassey Ikpi has, she tells her story in such a raw and riveting way that I felt her journey in my being I learned so much about mental illness, as she has experienced it, and about myself, in all the ways in which Bassey s j...This is a searing, lyrical piece of work Bassey Ikpi started her career as a poet, and it shows as she finds music in heartbreaking moments There are lines that will make you laugh out loud I still hate yoga, it s like a game of Simon Says that no one ever wins and descriptions so evocative they make you freeze a sweater is burgundy, the color of Anne s raspberry cordial, and that one line captures a type of girl that, if you were also one, identifies a kindred spirit This book is oste This is a searing, lyrical piece of work Bassey Ikpi started her career as a poet, and it shows as she finds music in heartbreaking moments There are lines that will make you laugh out loud I still hate yoga, it s like a game of Simon Says that no one ever wins and descriptions so evocative they make you freeze a sweater is burgundy, the color of Anne s raspberry cordial, and that one line captures a type of girl that, if you were also one, identifies a kindred spirit This book is ostensibly about mental health, and it is that We follow her from the early signs that no one recognized, through the crisis and out to the other side This is not a trite book about victory over mental illness, excepting the fact that she is still with us she is clear that every day is a struggle But to present it as only a book about mental illness is to sell it short This is a book about the human condition and how hard it is to live in this broken world in these frail ...Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me a copy of this book at BEA 2019 and thank you to Bassey Ikpi for signing my copy I thought this was a phenomenal read Bassey Ikpi has beautifully written her story about her experiences with mixed episode bipolar disorder She tells a story that needs to be heard, highlighting some of the glaring problems in health care when it comes to mental health Bassey Ikpi not only is able to tell her story eloquently, she also uses the space of the page and se Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me a copy of this book at BEA 2019 and thank you to Bassey Ikpi for signing my copy I thought this was a phenomenal read Bassey Ikpi has beautifully written her story about her experiences with mixed episode bipolar disorder She tells a story that needs to be heard, highlighting some of the glaring problems in health care when it comes to mental health Bassey Ikpi not on...Bassey Ikpi takes readers deep into the desperately spiraling path her mind takes as she poetically puts into words living with bipolar II Manic texts and emails to family and friends, comatose states of sleeplessness, a restlessness that requires laps around city blocks, negotiating periods of being repulsed by any kind of food, and a desire to no longer live while also not wanting to die this is Ikpi s life as she bravely shares her struggles, her scattered thought processes, and her confu Bassey Ikpi takes readers deep into the desperately spiraling path her mind takes as she poetically puts into words living with bipolar II Manic texts and emails to family and friends, comatose states of sleeplessness, a restlessness that requires laps around city blocks, negotiating periods of being repulsed by any kind of food, and a desire to no longer live while also not wanting to die this is Ikpi s life as she bravely shares her struggles, her scattered thought processes, and her confusion and frustration as to why she can t just be normal Ikpi writes about her difficult childhood, failed romantic relationships, family tensions, and what she sees as her own failures in this collection of incredibly personal essays She exp...In I m Telling the Truth, But I m Lying, Bassey Ikpi tells her life story of growing up with an increasingly splintered mind, from the early days of living in Nigeria and being confused at the turmoil within, to the growing fear in losing control and being hospitalised for severe depression and suicidality While the book is described as an essay collection, it ssuitably put as a memoir of a woman trying to piece together the various strands of her story and making sense of it, for other In I m Telling the Truth, But I m Lying, Bassey Ikpi tells her life story of growing up with an increasingly splintered mind, from the early days of living in Nigeria and being confused at the turmoil within, to the growing fear in losing control and being hospitalised for severe depression and suicidality While the book is described as an essay collection, it ssuitably put as a memoir of a woman trying to piece together the various strands of her ...only a woman so small and wise could give birth to herself so many times That was the last sentence in the prologue of Bassey Ikpi s book set to release this coming August That sentence struck a chord with me and I knew that this collection of essays was going to be amazing and moving Ikpi is a Nigerian American poet and mental health advocate and overall amazing human who has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder A disorder that Black and Brown folks to not talk about nor even have the only a woman so small and wise could give birth to herself so many times That was the last sentence in the prologue of Bassey Ikpi s book set to release this coming August That sentence struck a chord with me and I knew that this collection of essays was going to be amazing and moving Ikpi is a Nigerian American poet and mental health advocate and overall amazing human who has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder A disorder that Black and Brown folks to not talk about nor even have the name for As we read through Ikpi s essays we are met with gripping and raw narratives of what undiagnosed mental health disorders look like as well as what it looks when you re trying to navigate your new diagnoses She describes depression as a fog instead of just darkness and i related to that so deeply Thi...Heartbreakingly honest, navigating these experiences, this life of pain and yet love lingers in every memory in some way Such a penetrating insight into her world A necessary read Also, it made me cryReview to comeWow This was intense The writing is amazing The essays really put the reader in the place of not just better understanding bipolar II, but also give a sense, a feeling, of what it is like to live with this illness A must read.Such beautiful writing and such a necessary story that needs to be told A raw account of what it looks like to manage an illness that so many don t understand, but which they will hopefully knowabout after they read this Bassey is a warrior and I am in awe of her strength and storyte...Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me an ARC at BEA 2019, in return for an honest review Also, thank you to Bassey Ikpi for signing my copy.This collection of essays show Bassey Ikpi over the course of several decades, from her childhood moving to the U.S from Nigeria, to the difficulties in her home life with her parents, to her struggles in college, to her battling heartbreak, mental illness, depression, and work life balance as an adult A consistent theme is how we tell lies and obfu Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me an ARC at BEA 2019, in return for an honest review Also, thank you to Bassey Ikpi for signing my copy.This collection of essays show Bassey Ikpi over the course of several decades, from her childhood moving to the U.S from Nigeria, to the difficulties in her home life with her parents, to her struggles in college, to her battling heartbreak, mental illness, depression, and work life balance as an adult A consistent theme is how we tel...What can I say about a book that touched my soul so deeply First, Ikpi s experience with mental illness and difficult family dynamics allowed me a path to think about my own life and how my mental illness has impacted me There were times that I literally had to put the book down because her words forced me in a good way to face things that I had tried to push aside I found myself havingempathy for myself, which is something that does not come easy to me I found myself being gentler w What can I say about a book that touched my soul so deeply First, Ikpi s experience with mental illness and difficult family dynamics allowed me a path to think about my own life and how my mental illness has impacted me There were times that I literally had to put the book down because her words forced me in a good way to face things that I had tried to push aside I found myself havingempathy for myself, which is something that does not come easy t...

English
12 December 2017

Bassey Ikpi