Deborah Blau's Mental Illness In I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

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A person’s environment greatly contributes to how they act which affects their mental health. The people they surround themselves around can have a positive or negative affect on them. In I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg, Deborah Blau’s mental illness is sparked by her lonely childhood that impels her to generate an alternate reality but with the help of her doctor and her mother she overcomes her sickness. Deborah grew up as an introvert; she was very reluctant to making friends and kept her emotions to herself. Her mother, Esther, noticed that “she didn’t play with other children. She was always at home, hiding herself way” because “friendships came hard to her” (Greenberg 33). Because of her lonely childhood, Deborah …show more content…

Since Deborah could communicate with god of Yr, she became reluctant to making real friends because she neglected what the real world offered which had a negative effect on her mental health because she could not decipher between fantasy and reality: “Sometimes she even forgets the English language” (Greenberg …show more content…

Dr. Fried believed that Deborah would recovery and she gained an intimate relationship with Deborah to the extent at which she could tell her about her about her alternate reality. Even when Esther did not have hope, Dr. Fried did. “I think there is certainly a chance for her to be mentally healthy and strong” (Greenberg 181). When Dr. Fried went on vacation, another doctor was looking after Deborah named Dr. Royson,but he did not understand Deborah as well and tried to convince her that “Yri was a language formulated by herself and not sent with the gods as gift” (Greenberg

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