Waiting for Fitz

Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde

The protaganist is a teanager with sever OCD. She goes to an inpatient treatment center in Seattle in hopes of getting better treatment. There she meets other patients with different challenges. Discussion of Waiting for Godot occupies some of their time. With a friend, Fitz, she escapes for a little excursion around. Eventually they get separating, and get the police and family to help them. Fitz was in one of his different personalities digging a grave. They all get back and work on different solutions. She decides to go outpatient, but not before seeing a rare bird that they are interested in. The people displayed her all have great challenges, yet are also very intelligent. It is difficult being "different" in this world.

Cold Nights of Childhood

Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü

Mental illness as told by somebody experiencing it. Some periods all is going well. Other times, she is in a hospital and suffering. She sees there are problems. Yet, she dreads the treatment. She feels she has finally been "cured" via the treatment - not because it worked, but because she so dreaded going back.

She grew up in post-World War II Turkey. Things were not stable. Things were fairly westernized, yet still Islamic. There seemed to be a mixture of challenges from both sides. An upbringing in an Austrian convent school helped encourage some of the interesting experiences. Sexuality was explored, with marriage and friendship. There is a longing for something, though it is difficult to see what it is. The voice is very open and non-judgmental. Stylistically, words are placed on the page as needed to tell the story. There may bullet points or long run on paragraphs. It all works very well in this short "read in one setting" novel. It is like the "good part" of Hemingway. The seemingly autobiographical work paints an interesting picture of the "western" life in Turkey.

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki: A Memoir

The author details her struggles with mental illness and self esteem. She lives in Korea and has a moderately successful career, yet she does not feel great. She has trouble with relationships. She doesn't like being with people, but needs them. She struggles with drinking and overeating. The book starts with her view, but also provides some details from her psychiatrist (who is also quite open with her personal struggles.)

Every Last Word

A girl suffers from OCD. She is constantly imagining "dream" situations that are not "real". She has some special tricks she uses to cope. She also regularly sees a therapist.

She hangs with a group of 8 girls that she has known since kindergarten. They all tend to be very superficial valley girls. She gets along well with them and all their superficialities. However, she also is an accomplished swimmer and spends a lot of time in the pool. She feels her "summer self" is more true to herself than the self from the rest of the year.

One day she "meets" a girl near her locker and gets introduced to a secret poetry club. She struggles to fit in. She has to go through many steps (such as apologizing to the leader - a boy she and her friends teased in elementary school due to his sutter.) She is eventually accepted and falls in love with the boy. (But not until spending time obsessively stalking details of his former girlfriend.) 

She goes through many challenges and finds out the truth about the girl that she met. (She was not real, but based on a teenager that committed suicide years ago.) 

The lead character struggles with the twin challenges of dealing with a mental illness and feeling different from her friend group - all while trying to fit in. It is hard to be yourself when that may cause you to lose friends that you are attached to. It is even more challenging when your mind is forcing you down certain tracks. The professional help can be useful, but you also don't want others to know you are seeing them.

Legion

Stephen Leeds has a mental condition that causes him to hallucinate many different people. These "aspects" have their own personality strengths and weaknesses. He knows they are not "real", yet he treats them as real. They must "travel" to meet him. He opens doors for them. He books space on airplanes for them. They must use a phone if they want to talk remotely. His aspects give him near super-human power. He can simply glance at a foreign language book and one of his aspects can know help him speak a foreign language. He uses this skill as part of a unique private investigator-like business that has made him a rich man. He also has many people eager to study him.
The audiobook contains three novellas: Legion, Legion, Skin Deep, Legion: Lies of the Beholder. The first few books are regular adventure story, while the last one starts to tear apart his special abilities. The books are an interesting exploration of possible benefits of extreme mental "differences". Rather than treat them as illnesses, treat them as different benefits.