What would you do if your child suffered with something so severe it affected every aspect of his life?
Susie Dunham, Midwestern mom and former nurse, never suspected her son Michael was anything but a typical college student with big dreams until he developed schizophrenia shortly after his 21st birthday. The Dunham family quickly becomes immersed in the nightmare world of mental illness in America: psychiatric wards, a seemingly indifferent nursing staff, and the trial-and-error world of psychotropic meds. Michael’s ultimate recovery and remission comes with plenty of traumatic incidents involving both ignorance and stigma, but his courage and quest for dignity will inspire all readers.
“Susie Dunham’s heroic, heart-rending story is a beacon of light in the darkness of insanity. It shows that recovery is hard-won but possible for people who develop schizophrenia, despite a media that sensationalizes them, a society that shuns them, and a dysfunctional mental healthcare system that fails them miserably.”
–Patrick Tracey, author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family’s Schizophrenia
“Every person in a leadership position needs to take the time to read this moving story of triumph over adversity.”
–State Representative John Adams, Ohio House Minority Whip
“The fact that Michael bravely fought this disease, picked up the pieces and moved beyond it, should give others hope that one day schizophrenia will be seen as a treatable disease with no stigma attached.”
–Sharon Goldberg, News & Reviews Editor,”NYC Voices”: A Journal for Mental Health Advocacy
“Beyond Schizophrenia: Michael’s Journey is a book that I couldn’t put down. The story of Michael’s parents Susie and Mark who support their son both in good times and bad really touched me. I really like the way the symptoms of schizophrenia are explained clearly.”
–Bill MacPhee, Founder/CEO of SZ Magazine
Also available in trade paperback and eBook editions
Learn more at www.SusieDunham.org
From the Reflections of America Series at Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
PSY022050 Psychology : Psychopathology – Schizophrenia
BIO026000 Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
MED105000 Medical / Psychiatry / General
Picked up the book on Amazon felt a great catharsis as I read. Our daughter was 17 when she was first hospitalized with psychotic disorder, which they diagnosed as major depression with psychotic features, then bipolar, then schizoaffective, and now schizophrenia. We have had remissions and relapses for six years. A friend of mine, whose daughter was physically disabled till she died of cancer, said that when a child becomes disabled, it is a grieving process for the parents. Your book captures that, the lost hope and overall loss because her future is forever changed. Our daughter was a brilliant, talented beautiful girl with a lovely personality and disposition before this illness. I could write more, but suffice to say I was intensely grateful for the narrative you so courageously published. I hope Mike is still in remission, and not suffering from relapses, as our daughter is.