Susan Inman's memoir describes her family's nine year journey to help her younger daughter recover from a catastrophic schizoaffective disorder. Highly recommended by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey author of Surviving Schizophrenia and described by him as ...one of the best accounts I have read of serious mental illness as told by a mother. From the introduction, Michael Kirby, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and Ella Amir, the chair of the Caregiver's Advisory Committee state Susan's heart wrenching account is an important reminder of the work we still have to do to ensure that people with mental illness and their families get the same treatment and respect that individuals with physical illnesses receive. It is also testimony to the devotion and dedication of families, which sadly often comes at the expense of their own well-being Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. Stephanie Engel said Susan Inman has written a much needed book about her experience as a mother coming to grips with her daughter's devastating mental illness. Other parents will recognize and take comfort from her courageous and persistent efforts to learn what is known about psychotic illnesses and their treatment, while holding tenaciously to her own personal knowledge of what it means to be a loving, humane and thoughtful parent. Believing in one's own instincts as a parent in the face of expertise, myths and prejudices is a monumental task, and Ms Inman does it with grace and conviction. Emergency room physician and international best selling author, Dr. Daniel Kalla said After Her Brain Broke is a harrowing, heart wrenching, and ultimately triumphant story of one family's struggle with a child's mental illness. It's impossible not to be moved by Susan Inman's honest and touching account of her daughter's sudden descent into mental health turmoil and the family's long hard battle to overcome it. A must read for families coping with a mental illness, and a wonderful eye-opener for those of us lucky enough not to have been affected.

A fascinating look into the world of schizo-affective disorder which, at times, is funny, heartbreaking, but above all uplifting. Dr. Carolyn Dobbins describes the onset and progression of this debilitating disease and gives readers hope. The book breaks through the stigma as mental illness affects us all. Included at the end are facts about serious mental illness, the 6 A's of self help and Dr Dobbins' message to her counseling colleagues who may be surprised, as all readers will be, by the ending. In an advance review, the National Alliance on Mental Illness said this book is told in an unorthodox but very effective manner. and that people are more than their illness. Dr E Fuller Torrey, author of Surviving Schizophrenia, said an inspiration for all who have ever experienced psychosis Dr. Thomas G Burish, a professor of psychology and Provost of Notre Dame University said this book is powerful and revealing, and provides a unique insight into chronic mental disease. He added that the book is a probing, liberating story

When Quietness Came is the true story of a young woman studying neuroscience who, in her final undergraduate year, has a psychotic break, attempts suicide and ends up in hospital. Her struggles to get well and to pursue her PhD are described in this book. Her story is geared to people from a variety of backgrounds. As a neuroscientist, Erin reaches out to the medical community who need to hear this side of the patient. As a schizophrenic, she reaches out to others struggling with this disorder, hoping to draw alongside and offer empathy and hope. Finally, she wants the general public, family and friends of people with schizophrenia to be better able to understand and sympathize with those afflicted.

Vancouver artist Sandra Yuen MacKay has an abnormality of the brain - a disease called schizophrenia. As she says, my life is schizophrenic because I have schizophrenia. It will always be there. Much of her life has been a struggle to cope with the symptoms of her disease and the side effects of the medications required to keep those symptoms in check. Early in her life, Sandra started to exhibit the typical symptoms of this disease which came as a surprise to her unsuspecting family. Her book chronicles her struggles, hospitalizations, encounters with professionals, return to school, eventual marriage, and success as an artist, writer and advocate. Remarkably compelling...the book takes on a life if its own...a gripping narrative Library Journal There are precious few people who have experienced psychosis and can convey it accurately, clearly, and concisely. Sandra MacKay's story is an important one for all of us in the mental health field --doctors, patients, and their families. It is imperative that we take in the lessons she is imparting to us all, on how to manage, and in many ways, triumph, over chronic mental illness. Julie Holland, MD author, Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER., New York city

We live in a moment of history when the leader of the free world (as the president of the United States is so often called) may hold in his hands the future path of democracy, the fate of millions all over the world, and, ultimately, the fate of our planet. And that fact, I think, trumps (sorry) all the caveats about diagnosing someone whom you have never seen. It is a time that anyone who can see the dangers posed by this man has a duty to speak up. I started these blogs before Donald J. Trump was improbably elected. The most popular among them has been my assessment of Donald J. Trump's mental and emotional age. I arrived at an age simply from observations of his behaviour and his statements, while asking the question, At what age in development would one expect, or not be too shocked, to observe this behaviour? I came up with an average of 14. Though occasionally his displays of sibling rivalry and his assessment of his own greatness are definitely pre-pubescent. We become easily inured, desensitized. The outrageous and abnormal can be made to feel normal. A step at a time. The German government enacted something like 50 laws over a short historical period, starting with restricting Jews from Union Leadership. Some of the political pundits on television comment regularly on the abnormal becoming normal. But the very presentation on TV contributes to the desensitization.These blogs constitute my interpretation of the journey we are on with the Presidency of one Donald J. Trump as it is happening.

This new book by Erin Hawkes-Emiru brings neuroscience to life by postulating why neuroanatomy

and neurochemicals matter when you are living with mental illness and addiction. Erin, whose graduate

education is in Neuroscience, works as a peer support worker in Vancouver, Canada; the stories told in

this book are those of her clients. Erin's empathy for her clients is built on her own diagnosis of

schizophrenia. In this book, she opens for the layman the neuroscience that may underlie not only the

symptoms of mental illness and addiction, but also mental health more broadly.

Erin Hawkes-Emiru holds an MSc in Neuroscience. She was the recipient of multiple scholarships,

including two Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awards. In 2002, Erin

was diagnosed with schizophrenia and went on to be hospitalized 14 times. Finally, antipsychotic

medication helped her regain wellness, stability, and hope. Her memoir, When Quietness Came: A

Neuroscientist's Personal Journey With Schizophrenia, was published in 2012. Erin was awarded the

prestigious Courage to Come Back award in 2019 from Vancouver Coastal Health. Since 2013, Erin's

work on the ACT team has been highly valued by her clients and colleagues.

What had happened to our beautiful happy life? Could it really be over for us? I just wasn't sure if our love was strong enough to keep us together. I probably believed it wasn't. It was an idyllic marriage. John and Marion were high school sweethearts who married and began a successful life together. He was an internationally respected scientist in his field and she was a business woman in her family firm. With three children and finally settled in Victoria. BC, Canada after stints in Vienna and Australia, tragedy struck. Despite the eventual and probable diagnosis of late-onset schizophrenia, John and Marion struggled to hold their family together and to deal with an illness that usually strikes much earlier in life. This is their story of what happens when your mind betrays you.

Sakeenah Francis describes her life as a Cinderella story in reverse. She grew up in a well-respected, middle-class African American family. She went to college, was homecoming queen, married, began a career and had children. Then, schizophrenia struck and she lost everything. She went from homecoming queen to being homeless and institutionalized. Sakeenah Francis tells her daughter about her darkest moments of living with schizophrenia in a series of letters that chronicle the first time she heard voices in her head, her hospitalizations, her struggle to parent, and her arduous path to long-term recovery. Both shaken and moved by her mother's revealing letters, Anika faces the haunting effects her mother's mental illness had on her. After years of keeping the secret about her mother's illness, Anika breaks her silence voicing what it was like to grow up with a mother with a severe mental illness.She describes the emotional roller coaster created by her mother's bouts of recovery and how this impacted her well into adulthood. Though Sakeenah lost many bouts in her early struggles with schizophrenia, she kept striving. Through it all, there was love which at times was the only thing that made sense to Sakeenah and Anika. Love gave them the strength and resilience to heal and piece together that which schizophrenia had torn apart in our lives. This sobering story carries a message of hope that will be inspiring to people affected by a severe mental illness and the web of people connected to them.

A refreshing look at the puzzling world faced by today's teens and their parents who are trying to guide them. Incorporating advances in neuroscience, psychiatrist David Dawson clearly describes how teen brains work and offers practical advice to baffled parents in a fun and relaxing style. At the same time, he helps parents have confidence in their innate good instincts and solid understanding of their own children. Also included are significant behavioral warning signs that may indicate the early stages of serious mental illnesses. Dawson has the rare ability to make complex and potentially dull reading entertaining and instructive. In addition to being a psychiatrist, he is also a successful mystery writer and film director. Those skills enhance this book and provide some down to earth help to parents.

Written by a medical writer and family member of someone suffering from schizophrenia, this book outlines all of the issues involved with schizophrenia and its treatment including stigma, history, causes, physiological changes in the brain, and best treatments. It is an ideal reference and support for family members and others interested in this disease. It is also suitable as supplementary reading for students in health care fields (including medicine and nursing), psychology, social work and any occupation that needs solid information about schizophrenia. The book is recommended by the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders on its website.

This true story brings to life the experiences of one large family before and after the onset of mental illness. Using a mix of narrative, photographs, emails and pictures of various cherished objects, the book takes the reader into the author's world of caring for her younger brother Paul, who suffered from schizophrenia and then lung cancer. powerful and emotional - Ann Cloonan, Director, Bedford Free Library, Bedford, NY

Much interest has been generated about the impact of trauma and in particular, the transmission of trauma from generation to generation. In this poignant and humorous coming-of-age memoir, Toronto psychotherapist, Pearl Goodman, writes about just that. She embodies her parents' past in ways that aren't obvious to her, and grows up in an environment that she feels at odds with. She weaves her parents' traumatic fragments during WW2 into the events of her own life in Toronto, adds what she learns from Television, and in that process gains perspective, understanding and hope.

The blog has had about 75,000 views and has been read in 151 different countries since 2014. The posts reflect ideas about mental illness, health and life that can be debated and discussed so that we can come to a higher understanding of the issues. And, we have separated out mental illness from mental health because, despite their often interchangeability, they are distinct. Mental illness as a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life. Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. In contrast, mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. That is quite different from mental illness. Unfortunately there is a tendency to confuse these. Unfotunately, there tendency to talk about mental health issues and problems which are not the same as mental illnesses.

Jude began experiencing her illness at the rather young of 16 but despite some difficult early years, she has been relapse free for over 25 years. Her success in dealing with her illness she attributes to faithfully complying with her medication and listening to her doctors and counsellors. She and her husband, George who also has chronic schizophrenia, have been married for 33 years. Together, they have a daughter who is now in her early 30s and two young grandchildren of 7 and 5.

As a self described terminal optimist, Jude has become a successful artist, singer, and public speaker. How she accomplished this when many people with schizophrenia have less success is the subject of her book with many examples of her art work in color.

Jude's writing reflects a triumph of the human spirit over the insidious and poorly understood disease of schizophrenia. This book's major achievement is its power to connect. Our understanding of this illness is transformed as we begin to see people with schizophrenia not as poor me people but as people who are bravely confronting and coming to terms with their illness in a society that still desperately lacks insight. This book needs to be required reading for those who genuinely want to make a difference.

This present book exposes the danger of anti-psychiatry beliefs and their infiltration into the UN and that body's Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons. Anti-psychiatry is another manifestation of the growing anti-science views found in the anti-vax movement and in the rise of alternative medicine.

The book is an evidence based refutation of all the dribble spouted by the anti-psychiatry crowd which is becoming more entrenched. After the US election, I wrote in one of my blogs that I put anti-psychiatry in there with the anti-mask, anti-vax, alternative medicine proponents who are becoming more and more prevalent.

This volume exposes the danger of the anti-psychiatry beliefs and their infiltration into the UN and that body's Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons. Many countries have signed on although a few like Canada and Australia refused to ratify the odious terms for psychiatry. The US has not signed but there is every indication that the Biden Presidency will sign it all.