Based on my authentic experiences of schizophrenia
"The Overlife, A Tale of schizophrenia" By Diana Dirkby
A fiction novel exploring the effect of paranoid schizophrenia on a mother and daughter both living with this brain disorder.
information about "The Overlife, A Tale of schizophrenia"
Overliving the tumultuous waves of paranoid schizophrenia
Diana Dirkby is the pen name of Paula Tretkoff, a research mathematician who was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. She adopted the pen name to distinguish her novels from her mathematical works.
I chose the fiction genre for "The Overlife" to have artistic liberty because the novel is not a memoir. However, the narrator in the novel openly shares her schizophrenia symptoms, which are closely based on mine. "The Overlife, A Tale Of Schizophrenia" takes place in Australia, mainly in New South Wales. The main characters are Sarah, the narrator; Jodie, Sarah's mother; and Dalaigh, Jodie's husband and Sarah's father. Jodie and Sarah live with paranoid schizophrenia, but their experiences of this shared brain disorder are widely different, stressing a varied prognosis despite the common schizophrenia symptoms.
The narrator, Sarah, shares her schizophrenia symptoms openly, holding nothing back. By contrast, her mother, Jodie, never accepted she lived with a mental illness or brain disorder, and Sarah gives us a sympathetic view of her mother's world, lived with a schizophrenia she refuses to recognize.
"The Overlife" is also a story of relationships, particularly those within a family. There are aspects of the book that have nothing to do with mental illness, stressing that a mental health consumer is not defined by their diagnosis. There is always a lot more to their life than their illness.
Overliving the onset and relapses of schizophrenia
About my Podcast
"Schizophrenia As I Live It, Parts 1& 2"
"Schizophrenia As I Live It, Parts 1& 2," by Diana Dirkby, is the title of my Audio Podcast on how I live with paranoid schizophrenia. Buzzsprout powers this podcast and has a website with the entire show. You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other platforms, including YouTube. You can find it on the "Podcasts" page of this website.