Sherry Goes Sane: Living A Life With Schizo-Affective Disorder

by Sherry M. Joiner

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Author: Sherry M. Joiner

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1490315136
ISBN 13: 978-1490315133

A former high school cheerleader, Sherry Joiner has been dealt her share of misfortune in life. In addition to childhood abuse at the hands of her alcoholic parents, she has also faced the suicide of her mother and watched her brother slowly die of AIDS. Then, for decades, she has also suffered from schizoaffective disorder, characterized by stressful and distorted thoughts, and has been through the associated suicide attempts and hospitalizations.Sherry Goes Sane is her story, told from her point of view and written with vivid honesty. The candid memoir follows Sherry through the most traumatic moments of her life, as well as the most triumphant. In addition to painting a picture of the harrowing struggles faced by those with schizoaffective disorder, she also depicts years of working with her psychiatrist, Dr. Smith, as she heals from her childhood wounds and works toward living a normal life, with the help of therapy and prescribed medication.More than simply informational, this powerful memoir is also meant to inspire. In her story, Sherry shares many of the quotes, song lyrics, and philosophies that have helped her in her healing process over the years, in hopes that other individuals who suffer from schizoaffective disorder or other mental illnesses might find them equally helpful. She serves as a positive example of someone who has overcome great odds to live a fulfilling, happy, and overall stable life, even when her mental illness threatened to hold her back forever.

From Kirkus Reviews

In this debut memoir, a woman describes how she came to understand, treat and live successfully with her mental illness.

At first, this memoir’s narrative is difficult to piece together, as it bounces among the author’s memories of her first stay in a mental hospital; her career as a waitress; and stories of her high school boyfriend and her mother’s abusive boyfriend, among other things. However, readers soon begin to understand how fractured, abusive and sad Joiner’s childhood often was, due to her alcoholic mother, distant father and disastrous stepfathers. She began to have paranoid thoughts in high school, and by age 19, she suffered from delusions, including the belief that the Four Seasons’ 1962 song “Sherry,” which she heard on the radio, was “someone singing about me.” Soon, she believed that she was a movie star, that she was Jesus Christ, and that she could control John Kennedy’s and Robert Kennedy’s spirits. She shuffled among various jobs (waitressing, topless dancing, and, later, working as a preschool teacher and a nurse’s aide) as well as different men. She also repeatedly attempted suicide and underwent five different stints in an asylum. She developed a combination of work, creativity, exercise, therapy, and medication and created “Sherry’s Master Plan”—a method of meticulously recording and evaluating her daily achievements—that enabled her to get through each day. The book becomes more coherent as it goes on, as Joiner shines a light into the dark, frightening world of psychosis and its twisted logic. The prose is often beautiful, if harrowing, and readers will have sympathy for Joiner’s utter determination to find a way to live with her condition. The author’s stubborn courage is also admirable; for example, in 1972, she fought for equal pay for equal work, winning a settlement against a pizza place that paid her less because she was female. “I might have been ill, but for once, I knew I was right,” she says.

An affecting, honest memoir useful to anyone trying to understand life with psychosis.

About the Author

A native Oregonian, Sherry M. Joiner has lived with schizoaffective disorder for decades, an experience she drew upon strongly for her memoir, Sherry Goes Sane. She has spoken in psychiatric wards, hospitals, and universities for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and also as a speaker for In Our Own Voice. Her article, “Bringing Peace and Happiness to the Psyche Ward,” appeared in the 2013 Spring Edition of the NAMI Voice Newsletter, published nationally. Passionate about helping those with special needs, Sherry has worked as a preschool teacher for children with ADHD, Autism, and Bipolar Disorder. She also worked as a certified nurse’s aide for twenty years, assisting patients with cancer, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Her certificates include Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse, Violence and Prevention, Impact of ADHD, and Social Development and The Special Needs Child.

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Sherry Goes Sane: Living A Life With Schizo-Affective Disorder