Friday, October 7, 2016

Family and Friends- Brian Nguyen

Dear Tim Denevi,
I first want to thank you for sharing you extremely personal and vulnerable story to the world. It takes courage to put your life out for the public to see and I deeply respect you for that. There is a myriad of impacts I will take away from this book.
First and foremost, I was impressed at your ability to combine the history of ADHD and your personal interactions with it. You managed to seamlessly intertwine aspects such as Freudian psychology and your childhood. This kept this non-fiction engaging while teaching us the complex past of ADHD. The drugs used to treat ADHD and mental illness surprised me in their level of inconsistency and primitiveness. What works for one person can do actually negative affect the other.
Your family and especially your mother will have a lasting impression on me based on the struggles they had to go through in raising a child with ADHD. Of course, not all their experiences are negative, but I cannot even begin to fathom what it feels like for a mother to see how child attempt suicide. You were able to draw me in with these vivid accounts of your life. Your family has been with you through thick and thin and despite this being a book about ADHD, I was inspired by the bond between parent and child.
Another example of strong imagery that will stay with me is when you talked about the fates of your two friends, Ike and Steven. Similar to you, my friends and I have been through monumental times and I could never imagine anything unfortunate to ever happen to them. Your emotional writing about how Ike and Steven passed enlightened me about the harsh realities of mental illness and the significance of taking it seriously.
Sincerely,
Brian Nguyen




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