Analysis Of Stacy Pershall's Loud In The House Of Myself

Loud in the House of Myself is a memoir written by Stacy Pershall in which she recounts important moments in her life relating to her mental health and her experience with mental illness.
This story works chronologically through Stacy’s life, starting at her childhood, where the reader can begin to understand the root of her issues. Pershall does an excellent job of painting an extremely vivid picture of what it is like to live with mental disorders as a young child and adolescent. When Stacy was a teen, her struggles with eating disorders were on the forefront of her mind. Anorexia made its best effort to defeat Stacy as she went through high school. As she got older, other illnesses presented themselves. Bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder were two of Stacy’s biggest enemies as she attempted interpersonal relationships as

a young adult.

Pershall describes her experience dealing with her mental health, and how it affected not only her, but the people who surrounded her throughout her life. Stacy’s story concludes with a description of how she got her life back together after her last suicide attempt, as well as a message to the psychiatric system. Pershall goes over the flaws within this system, and how they can be better addressed. Overall, this autobiography gives a graphic description of life as a borderline and anorexic, and is greatly informative on a personal level.
I would say that Pershall achieved her purpose with this book. I think that she intended to write about her life in a very descriptive manner so that others could relate, get informed, or be entertained. Personally, I did all of these. Pershall did not hold back when it came to writing about the “ugly” points in her life. I believe that this went a long way in making such a strong autobiography. For example, she recounted her suicide attempt in great detail, down to the types of pills she took.

Taking a general or sugarcoated approach was not an option in a book of this sort. The author’s writing was extremely powerful. There are points in the book that are guaranteed to have the reader in tears. It is not a novel for the fainthearted. Pershall’s vibrant writing style and intense details are very strong parts of Loud in the House of Myself. However, the memoir does have some weaknesses. I think that Pershall had room to expand her vocabulary in her writing. When reading an engaging book, repeating the same words over and over again is certainly not ideal. Another detail that I felt had its faults was how Pershall attempted to connect her tattoos to her life experiences at the beginning of every chapter. Conceptually, I think it has great capabilities, but I do not believe that it was executed very eloquently. As a whole, I think that this book made some great conclusions about self-help and mental illness, and I fully agree with them. I would highly recommend this book to a vast array of people. I think that whether one is looking to learn about mental illness or looking to relate to somebody with similar experiences, it would be greatly beneficial. The book is also very interesting on its own, so even for entertainment purposes, it is a good read. I recommend going into the book aware that it is very graphic, and that anyone sensitive to suicide or self-harm stay away from this one.
Loud in the House of Myself is a riveting and passionate memoir highlighting every aspect of what it is like to struggle with mental illness. It is an incredibly fascinating story about a girl under very tough circumstances, and the battle between her and her own mind.