The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness

“As the days went by, I found myself obsessing on that moment two years ago. Gradually, my mood began to shift, and the brightness of the world began to darken. As I remembered the past, the feelings began to blur the present. Then came the dreadful thoughts. Maybe it was because I really wasn’t beautiful, exquisite and passionate. Maybe I was really ugly. Maybe more than ugly. Maybe I was fat and disgusting, an object not of romance but of ridicule. Yes, that was it. Maybe everyone around me, far from loving me, was instead laughing at me, mocking me to my face.”

In this quote, Lori is obsessing over the moment that a camp counselor with whom she shared a flirtation arrived at her home with his new fiancée on his arm. This quote depicts her feelings right before she started hearing the Voices. Through it, we can see the ordinary feelings of insecurity that underlie the extreme symptoms of her disease. We are given an early indication of the roots of the Voices.

“Still, I have been to a place where all too many people are forced to live. Like all too few, I have been permitted to return. I want to tell others about my journey so that those who have never experienced it will know what life inside of my schizophrenic brain has been like, and so that those who are still left behind will have hope that they too will find a path out.”

In this quote, which occurs at the outset of the narrative, Lori directly states her reasons for writing this book. In so doing, she assures us that no matter how dark, desperate, and hopeless she became—and also despite the deep darkness that we are about to witness as readers—she emerged from the other side. Through this quote, she tells readers that she hopes that this book functions as a beacon of hope. Therefore, we know that she does not mean to fetishize or wallow in the suffering that her disease caused, but to be honest about its effects, and also to demonstrate that she was able to ultimately triumph.