Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

Open Water by Alex Dean is a brutally honest memoir of a young man trapped in a mind and body that would not do what he wanted. The author describes his journey through mental and medical misdiagnoses, bullying, and periods of severe depression and uncertainty. From an early age, the author struggled with his extremely low body weight as well as balance and coordination issues. Doctors were convinced that his lack of eating and his balance issues were all psychological and not physical or genetic. Classified as having an eating disorder, he would spend numerous months as both an outpatient and an inpatient in various psychiatric institutions that specialized in afflictions such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Despite a difficult home life and a lack of success with traditional methods, the author, desperate for answers, sought a spiritual solution, but found no real answers in organized religion. Finally, a successful diagnosis of his medical condition gave the author some peace of mind and motivated him to write this book in the hope that it can help at least one person who is experiencing the darkness he had spent most of his life railing against.

Open Water is an incredibly powerful and intimate testimony of one young man’s struggle to understand the issues that he was forced to deal with daily. Alex Dean is honest and open about what was obviously an incredibly difficult childhood. Although he believed he was not psychologically unbalanced, the continual reinforcement of this opinion by a variety of medical experts eventually wore him down to the point where he doubted his own sanity. His courage in facing up to his disability, regardless of whether it was psychological or physical, reveals a lot about his character. His doggedness in pursuing a medical rationale for his condition and his willingness to try any possible solution are to be admired. What became obvious throughout this story was the powerful impact the author’s grandparents had on his ability to fit into a normal social life at school and later at university, and he was definitely blessed by this. This is a well-written, easy-to-read memoir that will have most readers grateful that they are not afflicted, and for those who are struggling, it will inspire them to never give up. I commend this author and hope he survives longer than the accepted lifespan for this condition. I highly recommend this read.