Completely In Blue — Chris Curry

“Chris Curry offers up a captivating tale chronicling his journey as a disaffected young adult spiraling through myriad episodes of self destructive drug use and finally over the precipice into the terrifying depths of psychosis, paranoia and delusion. Once there he shares his experience of incarcerated confusion, fear and despair.

As a cautionary tale told in the first person, 'Completely in Blue' speaks to a generation of youth faced with the pressures of adapting to new found independence in the face of frenetic social change and instability.

For those of us in the mental health and addictions community, this raw account of a tortured inner world experienced within the limitations of modern mental health care serves to underscore our obligation to acknowledge 'person over presentation' if we are truly committed to the principles of Mental health recovery. Ultimately, this is indeed a story of recovery, one that inspires optimism no matter how long or difficult that journey might be...

This book should be required reading for high school and post secondary social science programs and valued as a guide by mental health practitioners committed to eliminating the stigma of mental illness.” - Dr. Pamela Prince, Director - Strategic Planning and Evaluation, The Royal

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Completely in Blue is a memoir of madness. It is a memoir of a complex madness compounded by addiction, passion, love and hate. But ultimately, it is a memoir about triumph over a chaotic life and mind.

The story begins with a long-haired, slim and wild-eyed 18-year-old Chris standing in front of a stranger's house with the guns of several police officers pointed squarely at his head. Curry, who is suffering from drug-induced psychosis after selling ecstasy for the last several months, has just escaped from psychiatric custody.

The story then temporarily works backwards, closely examining the nearly unbelievable string of events that led up to his ultimate psychiatric hospitalization of three months. The reader follows Chris, a musician, as he attempts to record and promote an album, all the while losing his grip on reality.

Chris has just emerged from a devouring depression after failing out of Journalism school due to his ravaged lifestyle, and thus, embraces this new found happiness and passion. And at first, so does everyone else. He becomes intensely creative and focused in the thrusts of hypomania but that can only last so long. Everything he has worked for, quickly falls through his fingers as he is enveloped in a world of delusion, mania, paranoia, hallucinations and fear.