Download or read book Mental Hell How My Mother s Schizophrenia Became My Gift written by Nancy Thomason and published by . This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nancy Thomason lived with a mother who was paranoid schizophrenic, a diagnosis known only after she was institutionalized. Until then, no one talked about it. Not the police who visited often. Not Nancy's friends who were busy being teenagers. Not her school teachers and counselors, who wondered what was going on. Not the social workers who found a place for her and her brother to live. No one had word for what her mother left behind. Except hell.

Download or read book Tastes Like War written by Grace M. Cho and published by Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction Winner of the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature A TIME and NPR Best Book of the Year in 2021 This evocative memoir of food and family history is "somehow both mouthwatering and heartbreaking... [and] a potent personal history" (Shelf Awareness). Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life. Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia. In her mother’s final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her parent’s childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother’s multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her—but also the things that kept her alive. “An exquisite commemoration and a potent reclamation.” —Booklist (starred review) “A wrenching, powerful account of the long-term effects of the immigrant experience.” —Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book My Mother s Keeper written by Tara E. Holley and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1998-07-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Separated from her mother at an early age, Tara Elgin Holley became her mother's legal guardian at age 16 and set about trying to rescue the blonde fairy princess she remembered from the shambling street person her mother had become. An inspiring story of one woman's struggle to struggle through the pain to reach a better understanding of her mother, herself and a devastating mental illness.

Download or read book A Room with a Darker View written by Claire Phillips and published by Doppelhouse Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I am going blind. I am going blind," my mother would proclaim whenever I would call her in the psychiatric hospital, from almost three thousand miles away in Los Angeles. "By tomorrow," my mother would shout into the phone, "I will be blind." For years she had coped on her own until her doctor reduced her Haldol in hopes of decreasing harmful neurological side effects. The results were cataclysmic. This would be one of many relapses after receiving a diagnosis for paranoid schizophrenia in her mid-forties, after a ten-year prolonged psychosis during which my mother worked as criminal public defense counsel on behalf of some of New York and New Jersey's most disadvantaged residents. A Room with a Darker View is an unflinching, feminist work that chronicles the author's troubled relationship with her mother, an Oxford-trained lawyer, whose severe illness -- marked by manic bouts of senseless laughter, persistent delusions, and florid hallucinations -- went unrecognized for decades by both her husband, a world-class British astrophysicist, and her father, a Jewish-Zimbabwean doctor knighted by Pope Paul VI. Told in fragments, flashbacks, and chronicling the most extreme but unfortunately common aspects of schizophrenia, this elegantly written memoir is a reflection on illness, shame, and the generation gaps that have defined mother-daughter relationships amid the evolution of feminism in the 20th century. Like Porochista Khakpour's lauded memoir, Sick (2018), A Room with a Darker View is not a linear tale of redemption or restitution. Rather, it challenges conceptions about mental illness, difficulties caring for an aging parent with a chronic disease, and how we frame contributions by outliers to society, while offering a scathing look at a broken medical system, the unwillingness of an elite educated family to reckon with its secrets, and finally, the universally-understood difficulty of caring for an aging parent with a chronic illness. Unsurprisingly, feminists have been at the forefront of writing illness narratives, from Virginia Woolf to Audre Lord and Susan Sontag. My family's inability to accommodate my mother's illness, the perniciousness of her particular subtype of schizophrenia, paranoia, and the story of women's fight for gender equality in both the workplace and at home are part of this chronicle. In 500-word vignettes A Room with a Darker View retrospectively examines the trauma of undiagnosed mental illness besieging a mother-daughter relationship from toddlerhood through college and into the author's adult life as a writer and lecturer. Of particular note, the author documents her mother's determination in trying to find a place for herself in the male dominated field of law in the 1970s, and her equal determination to recover some semblance of a life after a difficult diagnosis, as she becomes heavily medicated and impoverished by divorce. Only with her mother's final relapse at 73 did the author begin to tell this story, first in Black Clock, an essay for which she received a Pushcart nomination and notable mention in The Best American Essays 2015.

Download or read book Caught in the Web of My Mother s Psychosis written by Marilyn T. Evans and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being mentally ill is a lifelong battle of ups and downs, and not a lot of people understand or take the time to care to understand the mentally ill. Everyone are in a class of their own in the world which makes it extremely hard for the mentally ill and non-mentally ill to connect with one another. There are so many rules and regulations to follow for mental patients and their friends and family to know and live by. Finding a balance for such can be very hard.

Download or read book Primary Gift written by Kelly F. Holland and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early in my life, I faced great challenges. I could not be a child like my siblings or my classmates. My journey was different. In my school, I learned about schizophrenia and physical violence. My teacher was very powerful. As an adolescent I lost my way. I became a ward of the court and completed my high school education while living in a state group home. In 1989, at age twenty-six, I met an exemplary professional who began to show me the way. For the next twenty years and beyond, I learned lessons of discipline, love, and respect for self and others. Soon, my lifes success began to unfold. At age twenty-six, I received my lifes primary gift. In 1999, I became on fire for my life, because of the excellence that I had witnessed in another person. I began to dream of talking to the world about the excellence that lives within each one of us. I relocated my life to the desert Southwest. It was there that I began to hear my hearts song and awaken to the excellence of my lifes journey. It was there that I discovered the wisdom of my lifes teachings. I believe that no matter what circumstances you may find yourself in, excellence is present. And, no matter how desolate you may feel, when you find the fire, the inspiration, and the music of your heart there isnt anything that can keep you from living your lifes dreams. ???

Download or read book The Good Mother Myth written by Avital Norman Nathman and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era of mommy blogs, Pinterest, and Facebook, The Good Mother Myth dismantles the social media-fed notion of what it means to be a "good mother." This collection of essays takes a realistic look at motherhood and provides a platform for real voices and raw stories, each adding to the narrative of motherhood we don't tend to see in the headlines or on the news. From tales of mind-bending, panic-inducing overwhelm to a reflection on using weed instead of wine to deal with the terrible twos, the honesty of the essays creates a community of mothers who refuse to feel like they're in competition with others, or with the notion of the ideal mom—they're just trying to find a way to make it work. With a foreword by Christy Turlington Burns and a contributor list that includes Jessica Valenti, Sharon Lerner, Soraya Chemaly, Amber Dusick and many more, this remarkable collection seeks to debunk the myth and offer some honesty about what it means to be a mother.

Download or read book The Voice of Spirit written by Judy O’Brien and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2016-05-16 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Voice of Spirit: A Mediums Story introduces a clinical nurse specialist whose vocation to become a medium led her to devote her full attention to the messages that spirits desire to share with the people they have left behind in this world. Judy OBrien, whose work has given rise to her business, Angels Amongst Us, speaks with a conversational and honest voice in the pages of this book that blends the genres and intentions of a memoir, a spiritual reflection, and a guide. As the author tells her lifes story, she notes, I can communicate with loved ones who have crossed over. I have been aware of this abilityor giftsince I was five, but it wasnt until many years later, that I wanted to learn more about spirituality and understand the messages I was receiving because I had always thought they were just my intuition. Readers following her on the journey narrated in The Voice of Spirit will traverse the same path of deepening insight and recognize the blessings that come from listening to the messages that arise and contemplating their sources and meanings. In The Voice of Spirit: A Mediums Story, Judy OBrien desires to validate the existence of spirits for all whom those same spirits have left behind. As you read her story, you can find hope and peace and appreciate the love that transcends the boundaries of the physical world and that beckons you toward the spiritual world in which eternal love never dies.

Download or read book Troubled Minds written by Amy Simpson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting on the confusion, shame and grief brought on by her mother's schizophrenia, Amy Simpson provides a bracing look at the social and physical realities of mental illness. Reminding us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, she explores new possibilities for the church to minister to this stigmatized group.

Download or read book He Came in With It written by Miriam Feldman and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “...a cleansing narrative that should inspire mothers—and other caregivers—to rise up, unite, and breathe hot new life into the drooping cause of mental healthcare reform.”— Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author. “To know that you are not alone in this loneliest and most emotionally difficult of all family situations is a great gift, a comfort and source of strength. And Mimi Feldman is the one you want as your mentor, your guide.”— Janet Fitch, New York Times best-selling author of White Oleander “...a compelling, moving story...It was an honor to read it.”— Jenny Allen, author of Would Everyone Please Stop In an idyllic Los Angeles neighborhood, where generations of families enjoy deep roots in old homes, the O’Rourke family fits right in. Miriam and Craig are both artists and their four children carry on the legacy. When their teenage son, Nick, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, a tumultuous decade ensues in which the family careens permanently off the conventional course. Like the ten Biblical plagues, they are hit by one catastrophe after another, violence, evictions, arrests, a suicide attempt, a near-drowning...even cancer and a brain tumor...play against the backdrop of a wild teenage bacchanal of artmaking and drugs. With no time for hand-wringing, Miriam advances, convinced she can fix everything, while a devastated Craig retreats to their property in rural Washington State as home becomes a battlefield. It is while cleaning out a closet, that Miriam discovers a cache of drawings and journals written by Nick throughout his spiral into schizophrenia. She begins a solitary forensic journey into the lonely labyrinth of his mind. This is the story of how mental illness unspools an entire family. As Miriam fights to reclaim her son from the ruthless, invisible enemy, we are given an unflinching view into a world few could imagine. It exposes the shocking shortfalls of our mental health system, the destructive impact of stigma, shame and isolation, and, finally, the falsity of the notion of a perfect family. Throughout the book, it is the family’s ability to find humor in the absurdities of this life that saves them. It is a parable that illustrates the true definition of a good life, allowing for the blemishes and mistakes that are part of the universal human condition. He Came In With It is the legacy of, and for, her son Nick.

Download or read book The Gift of Depression written by John F. Brown and published by The Fun Foundation. This book was released on 2001 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book series is intended to enlighten the world about people living with depression. Its main objective is to remove the public stigma keeping tens of millions of sufferers from seeking treatment for this illness. We believe if people read about what actually has happened in the lives of those with a mental illness, it will dispel their fears and ultimately end the stigma. After all, most of our reactions to life are nothing more than learned behaviors and habits. We hope, by reading this book and the series to follow, you will change your attitudes and interactions toward the mentally ill. Its that simple.

Download or read book Everything Is Fine written by Vince Granata and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Granata was a thousand miles from home when he received shocking news that his younger brother, Tim, propelled by unchecked schizophrenia, had killed their mother in their childhood home. Devastated by the grief of losing his mother, Granata was also consumed by the act itself, so incomprehensible that it overshadows every happy memory of life growing up in a seemingly idyllic middle-class family. He decides to examine the disease that irrecoverably changed his family's destiny and piece together his brother's story. In the painstaking process of recovering the image of his remarkable mother and salvaging the love for his brother as Tim faces trial for their mother's murder, Granata provides a powerful and reaffirming portrait of loss and forgiveness. -- adapted from jacket

Download or read book The Works of a Schizophrenic written by Christine Walter and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2014-06-02 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book includes art work, a play, poetry and my story. It is about my journey of healing through writing. Overcoming partner abuse, mental illness and being institutionalized. My hope is that anyone who has been abused or diagnosed with a mental illness will be able to relate to my book. This book is for everyone. I hope to decrease the stigmatization of those diagnosed with an illness and illustrate that labels don't stop people from having successful lives.

Download or read book No One Cares About Crazy People written by Ron Powers and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times-bestselling author Ron Powers offers a searching, richly researched narrative of the social history of mental illness in America paired with the deeply personal story of his two sons' battles with schizophrenia. From the centuries of torture of "lunatiks" at Bedlam Asylum to the infamous eugenics era to the follies of the anti-psychiatry movement to the current landscape in which too many families struggle alone to manage afflicted love ones, Powers limns our fears and myths about mental illness and the fractured public policies that have resulted. Braided with that history is the moving story of Powers's beloved son Kevin -- spirited, endearing, and gifted -- who triumphed even while suffering from schizophrenia until finally he did not, and the story of his courageous surviving son Dean, who is also schizophrenic. A blend of history, biography, memoir, and current affairs ending with a consideration of where we might go from here, this is a thought-provoking look at a dreaded illness that has long been misunderstood. "Extraordinary and courageous . . . No doubt if everyone were to read this book, the world would change." -- New York Times Book Review

Download or read book Reflections on the Meaning of Mental Integrity written by Marcia A. Murphy and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is mental integrity (the state of being complete, whole) achieved in light of serious mental illness? The author’s intent is that this work will be a source of insight and healing for many and that it will equip the church, conjoined with the medical/scientific field of psychiatry, to do a better job of enabling people living with mental illness to access the resources they need for becoming whole. The author shares some of her personal story of experience with serious mental illness, i.e., its genesis and her subsequent recovery process, which included involvement in a Christian community and her ministry work as an advocate for the mentally ill.

Download or read book Ben Behind His Voices written by Randye Kaye and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2011-10-16 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When readers first meet Ben, he is a sweet, intelligent, seemingly well-adjusted youngster. Fast forward to his teenage years, though, and Ben's life has spun out of control. Ben is swept along by an illness over which he has no control—one that results in runaway episodes, periods of homelessness, seven psychotic breaks, seven hospitalizations, and finally a diagnosis and treatment plan that begins to work. Schizophrenia strikes an estimated one in a hundred people worldwide by some estimates, and yet understanding of the illness is lacking. Through Ben's experiences, and those of his mother and sister, who supported Ben through every stage of his illness and treatment, readers gain a better understanding of schizophrenia, as well as mental illness in general, and the way it affects individuals and families. Here, Kaye encourages families to stay together and find strength while accepting the reality of a loved one's illness; she illustrates, through her experiences as Ben's mother, the delicate balance between letting go and staying involved. She honors the courage of anyone who suffers with mental illness and is trying to improve his life and participate in his own recovery. Ben Behind His Voices also reminds professionals in the psychiatric field that every patient who comes through their doors has a life, one that he has lost through no fault of his own. It shows what goes right when professionals treat the family as part of the recovery process and help them find support, education, and acceptance. And it reminds readers that those who suffer from mental illness, and their families, deserve respect, concern, and dignity.

Download or read book Your Soul s Gift written by Robert Schwartz and published by Whispering Winds Press. This book was released on 2012-04-11 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his groundbreaking first book, Your Soul's Plan, Robert Schwartz brought the idea of pre-birth planning into the mainstream. Now, his brilliant sequel Your Soul's Gift delves even deeper by exploring the pre-birth planning of spiritual awakening, miscarriage and abortion, caregiving, abusive relationships, sexuality, incest, adoption, poverty, suicide, rape, and mental illness. Working with a team of gifted mediums, Schwartz brings forth great love and wisdom from the other side to explain why such experiences are planned and the deep, soul-level healing they can create. Through the stories in Your Soul s Gift you can: -Develop greater self-love as you become aware of the tremendous courage it takes for you to plan a life on Earth and to live the life you planned -Emerge from victim consciousness to know yourself as the powerful creator of your life -Forgive those who have hurt you and create a lasting inner peace -Understand the qualities you came into this lifetime to cultivate and express -See profound purpose in experiences that once appeared to be meaningless suffering -Develop a heartfelt knowing of your infinite worth, beauty, magnificence, and sacredness as an eternal soul.