Book excerpt: A nameless, fatiguing unease is eroding Jennifer Hartley's seemingly idyllic life on a KwaZulu-Natal farm, one that her deep love for the land and her family cannot stem. She falters - socially, romantically, functionally - into an undefined isolation that those around her cannot understand. Until, one lazy Saturday afternoon, a swarm of bees attacks her and her children, precipitating her first panic attack. Other panic attacks are quick to follow, rupturing her exhaustion first with paranoia, then with terrifying hallucinations. Assaulted by symptoms she cannot control and admitted to a state psychiatric facility, Jennifer slides into a world turned inside out. One Green Bottle is an uncompromising account of one woman's experience of mental illness, its stigma, and the healthcare professionals whom the mentally ill entrust with the tightrope walk of their diagnosis and recovery. Above all, it is a story of resilience, of the quiet hope and renewal that the unlikeliest bonds can nurture.