Weekends at Bellevue |  | Author: Julie Holland
Publisher: Bantam
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 2396
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0553807668
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.21097471
EAN: 9780553807660
ASIN: 0553807668
Publication Date: October 6, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Julie Holland on Weekends at Bellevue
 No one is immune from mental illness. After working at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital for nine years, as the psychiatrist in charge of admissions at the psych E.R. on Saturday and Sunday nights, I came away knowing this for sure. Over the years, I admitted heiresses and art dealers, altar boys and college students, homecoming queens, studio executives, bankers, lawyers, correction officers, and the list goes on. No matter who you are, what you do for a living, how much money you have in the bank, or how often you go to church, circumstances can transpire that will bring you to Bellevue. This is one of the hardest lessons for our patients to learn. My years at Bellevue taught me many things, life lessons I could never have hoped to receive elsewhere, but the main take-home message was this: cherish your sanity, for it can be lost in the blink of an eye. Sometimes I saw the same patients repeatedly, alcoholics and addicts who were hitting bottom in regular cycles, showing up when their funds ran out. Other times, however, I met patients with no psychiatric history, who ended up at Bellevue when a bad break-up led to a suicide attempt, or a shared cigarette at a bar led to a PCP-induced psychosis. There are so many ways in which a life can suddenly unravel, and many of my patients could specify just when that started to happen for them--whether it was joining the army, leaving home for college, or living through the death of their child. Many of the people I encountered at Bellevue tried strenuously to convince me that they did not belong there. Or vice versa. A big part of my job was learning how to separate the genuinely disturbed from the fakers (some people actually wanted to be admitted to Bellevue, if only for the promise of a clean bed and three meals a day), and to identify the people who had been misunderstood, misdiagnosed, who weren’t mentally ill at all. After a few years of Bellevue experiences under my belt, I developed a sixth sense for what real crazy looked like, sounded like, and yes, smelled like. One night a young man was brought in to the E.R. because he was found on a street corner preaching to passersby to give up their worldly possessions. I knew enough to listen and wait, and not rush to judgment, even though it might have seemed a no-brainer to admit him. Once I was able to draw him out, I learned that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and then spent time in a Chelsea art gallery known as COSM, which I myself had been to and knew to be an intense, inspirational and potentially overwhelming experience, something that might well unhinge a person on mind-altering drugs. I spoke with him gently as his trip slowly ebbed, helping him to navigate his re-entry in the city hospital where he had landed with no money or identification. He stayed in touch with me for months afterwards, grateful that I was there to protect him when he soared--however briefly--beyond the boundaries of normal behavior. There is a diaphanous membrane between sane and insane. It is the flimsiest of barriers, and because any one of us can break through at any time, it terrifies us, causing us to turn our backs on those who remind us of this painful reality. But spending so much time with people who marched out of the lockstep of sanity has made me less forgiving of the way the mentally ill are ostracized and shunned. We owe them something better. And we should remember that the barrier separating "them" from "us" is not nearly as secure as we might think.--Julie Holland
Product Description
Julie Holland thought she knew what crazy was.
Then she came to Bellevue.
New York City’s Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States, has a tradition of “serving the underserved” that dates back to 1736. For nine eventful years, Dr. Holland was the weekend physician in charge of Bellevue’s psychiatric emergency room, a one-woman front line charged with assessing and treating some of the city’s most vulnerable and troubled citizens, its forgotten and forsaken—and its criminally insane. Deciding who gets locked up and who gets talked down would be an awesome responsibility for most people. For Julie Holland, it was just another day at the office.
In an absorbing memoir laced with humor, Holland provides an unvarnished look at life in the psych ER, recounting stories from her vast case files that are alternately terrifying, tragically comic, and profoundly moving: the serial killer, the naked man barking like a dog in Times Square, the schizophrenic begging for an injection of club soda to quiet the voices in his head, the subway conductor who watched a young woman pushed into the path of his train. As Holland comes to understand, the degree to which someone can lose his or her mind is infinite, and each patient’s pain leaves a mark on her as well—as does the cancer battle of a fellow doctor who is both her best friend and her most trusted mentor.
Writing with uncommon candor about her life both inside and outside the hospital—her professional struggles, personal relationships, and the therapy sessions that help her crack the hard shell she’s formed to keep the pain at bay—Holland supplies not only a page-turner with all the fast-paced immediacy of a TV medical drama but also a fascinating glimpse into the inner lives of doctors who struggle to maintain perspective in a world where sanity is in the eye of the beholder.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
 Absolutely Fantastic! November 19, 2009
Christy Smith (With All The Wild Monkeys)
It is NOT your average doctor who pulls aside the Wizard of Oz curtains and reveals herself as a fallible human being, wrestling with her own issues all the while taking the reader on an E-Ticket (the BEST rides at Disneyland) ride through her 9 years as ER doc on the weekends at Bellevue. Fabulously brave and incredibly heartfelt, it is a testament to what it actually takes this person to navigate, personally and professionally, caring for those who, for whatever reason, are severely mentally ill in so many different manifestations, and attempting to solve each puzzle as it lands in the ER. It also highlighted the thin line between sanity and insanity that so many successfully walk with the assistance of therapy and medication - really bringing mental health to a level that it should be - acknowledged as just another part of life and not something to hide or be ashamed of. I actually listened to the audio version and enjoyed hearing Dr. Holland read it herself - adding a "scratch n' sniff" dimension that really works for this very real, often funny, often questioning, sometimes sad & frustrating book. A relaxing read it's not - more like a wild ride - so strap on your seat belt!
Really good memoir November 19, 2009
Lupa (Portland, OR)
As a psych student, I was really curious to see what a seasoned professional in the field had to say--especially at Bellevue, of all places. I was impressed at the openness and honesty the author showed, not only in explaining the context of her anecdotes, but also going into things besides the patients themselves, to include divulging some pretty deep and personal feelings. While some of the things she did during her time at Bellevue--particularly early on--could be looked askance by readers, the fact that she addressed the behavior by going to therapy shows a great deal of responsibility, especially in a position where getting jaded happens all too easily. And as the book goes on, her patients seem more and more human as she opens up to them more, which will hopefully help transform the public image of the mentally ill. Overall, an inspiring and interesting read!
 Tells more about the doctor than the patients November 18, 2009
Teresita (Texas)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I began reading this book from the perspective of a person who has spent many hours in locked psychiatric wards with a family member who had repeated episodes of psychosis beginning when they were elderly. After reading the first few chapters of this book, I was disturbed by the doctor's approach to her patients and other staff and became deeply grateful that she was not the first person I encountered at the time my relative was in so much pain and the family was reeling from the shock and grief of dealing with the delusions. By the grace of God, most of the psychiatric professionals we encountered during that time were deeply compassionate and helped my family to navigate in a world that had suddenly been turned upside down. Early on I wanted to give this book an unfavorable review but did not feel that it was fair to the author to do so until I had read the entire book. Although she asserted repeatedly that therapy had given her greater insight and compassion in dealing with her patients, that simply did not ring true for me. I feel that this book is much more insightful of the doctor's psychological challenges than a heartfelt look at this most vulnerable population.
 Don't judge all mental health professionals by Dr. Holland November 17, 2009
deeper waters (Michigan, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Julie Holland is a bright and cocky, whiny, self focused doctor trying to work out her own issues on the backs of the people who come through the Bellevue Psych ER. While potentially interesting, particularly because I have worked on a psychiatric unit, the book failed to deliver. The author did not across as being honest with herself and the detailed inclusion of her sexual escapades and other "bad girl" behaviors made her sound an awful lot like the people who did not hold the keys. Not much of a role model (except as an example of what not to do), how she ever made it into, let alone completed her residency is beyond me ~ limited self-understanding (or at least its application), contentious relationships and a propensity for behaviors that are personally or professionally destructive. In the hands of a more accomplished writer, her abrasiveness could have been balanced with the vulnerability and compassion that is so carefully controlled, thus making a better story.
Lacks bedside manner November 16, 2009
Dominique Withrow (MI)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was very disappointed with the content of this book. I expected it to be more patient focused. At the very least I expected it to show compassion and some type of respect for the patients seen. I saw no evidence of either and that disappoints me since the author is an individual who chose to make a career out of helping others.
The author might be better suited in writing a fictional story with characters based on her experience at Bellevue...or her experiences as a student. Dr Holland's writing style is candid and to-the-point-descriptive. This type of writing when mixed with the subject matter comes off as insensitive as well as pompous. There can be a way to make money from such experiences without belittling others in the process.
Overall interesting topic but insensitive and overall poorly executed.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
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