Mad (adj. angry insane)

<p>This poetic form collection tells the story of a slide into and out of madness in both senses of the word.</p><p>It is also a very dark queer - survival? coming out? coming forward? - story loosely based on truth. It might be considered a conversion-therapy survival story.</p><p>Mad is an exploration of the... turmoil .... within the mind of a lesbian who struggled to be who she was while being instructed that her <em>self</em> needed to be corrected.</p><p>Mad also examines the struggles involved when coming to terms with many aspects of LGBT and queer identity: particularly how does one subjected to the idea that their self is wrong make their way through their sexuality their orientation their very gender? How do they do this without drugs and alcohol? And what does it look like when they can't?</p><p>It would be nice to believe this collection tells a story from the extremity of the queer experience but what if it doesn't?</p><p>Mad will resonate with readers who have struggled finding themselves and maybe - hopefully - it will bring awareness to the reality that queer is never a choice.</p><p>It might also stand as a horror story.</p><p>The purpose of telling this story is to take it from the dark closet of LGBTQIA+ experience and expose it in the hopes that it will enable other LGBTQ+ people to find a path to see themselves to accept themselves and to release the rage that swallows them.</p><p>Note: this poetic form story explores the use of psychiatric treatments (medications psychiatric hospital confinement and electroconvulsive therapy) and covers several possible triggering events (assault suicide alcoholism drug misuse).</p>