"Two years ago , I took a razor to my wrist and cut three lines into my arm. I wasn’t trying to die. I didn’t know what a 5150 was, and psych wards were places my friends and I only joked about. But my friend had cut herself with scissors in high school, and I thought that if it worked for her, it could work for me too. I just wanted to feel something besides numbness, even if it was painful, anything to end the constant numbness pulsing through my entire being." -- From the introduction to 5150 - A Memoir. When college student Dana Christensen finds herself growing more and more isolated and overwhelmed she turns to alcohol and "cutting" as an outlet to her problems. Eventually she ends up in a state hospital under observation because she's a risk to herself on a 5150 hold (72 hour observation)... In this stirring collection of poetry and Journal entries (her first by the way), Dana takes the reader on a trip through her depression and near suicide as she reveals to the reader, with brutal honesty, how she came to be held for 17 days "for her own protection". Sadly, this is a common theme among many of today's youth: isolation and depression, followed by self-abuse and acting out. Recent headlines document cases of violence by young people against others...And more and more we are seeing that the perpetrator's are terribly troubled young people, acting out against their own. Dana's story is one of resilience and hope. 5150 - A Memoir is a cautionary tale, one that should be heeded.
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