When she learned of Cassie’s death, her mental state began to deteriorate rapidly and her mental illness fully regained control over her life. She was almost fully recovered after her second hospitalization even though a few intrusive thoughts still remained. Lia has suffered from a variety of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and anorexia. Lia’s rapidly declining health is sparked by grief over her best friend’s death, emphasizing her complex relationship with mental illness. Lia’s near death experience, caused by depression after her friend’s death in the novel Wintergirls, accentuates the importance of supportive friendships in facilitating recovery from a deadly mental illness. Subsequently, Lia is weighed down with guilt over her inability to prevent her friend’s death, leading to a relapse in her caloric restriction and suicidal ideation. It turns out that was the last phone call Cassie would ever make, because the next morning, her childhood friend was found dead in a motel room from mysterious circumstances. Lia thought nothing of it until she received a disturbing midnight phone call from Cassie, which she dismissed. After several years, their friendship became tense, and they grew apart.

After a lifetime struggle with mental illness, Lia was beginning to recover from the self deprecating thoughts, and even became close friends with a quirky girl named Cassie.

Lia, the protagonist of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of many unfortunate teenagers who developed a deadly eating disorder due to her chronic depression and desire to be perfect. Furthermore, the voices in their heads tell them that they are undeserving of positive experiences, love, and even food. If their intrusive thoughts are left untreated, victims may even take their own life. Victims display a low self esteem and have a negative outlook on the world. Although mental illness may not cause direct physical harm, the torment that these sufferers endure on a daily basis is not to be taken lightly. Within American society lurks a silent, invisible killer it afflicts one fourth of the global population, causes eight million deaths annually, and its deadliness is often underestimated due to a lack of physical trademarks.

Wintergirls novel