A Lethal Inheritance: A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness

by Victoria Costello

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Author: Victoria Costello

Publisher: Prometheus

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1616144661
ISBN 13: 978-1616144661

From the review of A LETHAL INHERITANCE by Dean MacKinnon, MD of Johns Hopkins Medical School: "In journalistic reviews of the scientific literature I always look out for the odd bit of pseudoscience or pop psychology that might undermine one's confidence in the author's understanding of the topic. Happily, I find that Ms. Costello's science and medical reporting, on topics both biological and clinical, is quite sound. Indeed, she not only avoids bad science, but she also avoids gushing overenthusiastically about the trendiest, most evanescent discoveries. I was consistently impressed with her scholarship and her way of making sense of science without resorting to jargon. She even goes the extra mile--late in the book she enrolls in a study on psychobiological markers of schizophrenia and describes the research process from the inside out."

From the book foreword by Terrie Moffitt, PhD Professor of Neuroscience, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, and Duke University

Every family has secrets; only some secrets are lethal. In Victoria Costello's family mental illness had been given many names over at least four generations until this inherited conspiracy of silence finally endangered the youngest members of the family, her children.

In this riveting story--part memoir, detective story, and scientific investigation--in the tradition of the story of Henrietta Lacks, Costello recounts how the mental unraveling of her seventeen-year-old son Alex compelled her to look back into family history for clues to his condition. Eventually she tied Alex's descent into hallucinations and months of shoeless wandering on the streets of Los Angeles to his great grandfather's suicide on a New York City railroad track in 1913.

But this insight brought no quick relief. Within two years of Alex's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, both she and her youngest son succumbed to two different mental disorders: major depression and anxiety disorder. Costello depicts her struggle to get the best possible mental health care for her sons and herself, treatment that ultimately brings each of them to full recovery. In the process, she discovers startling new neuroscience and genetic findings that explain how clusters of mental illness traverse family generations.

The author closes by translating what she's learned into a set of ground rules for "New, New Parenting," advice to help individuals and families recover from addictions and mental disorders, and prevent their return in future generations.

Writing for Booklist, Donna Chavez says about A Lethal Inheritance: "Science journalist Costello's educative memoir gives poignant testimony to the fact that not only do we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us; we carry their burdens as well. At the point where it was almost too late to intervene in her eldest son's mental deterioration, Costello embarked on a journey backward in time that moved her and both of her sons forward into a brighter future. ...The story Costello share is a twofer. It is a cautionary tale about the price families pay for keeping mental illness secret. It is also a road map for identifying risk factors for and recognizing early signs of psychiatric issues, the better to preempt advanced disease."

To see the Book Trailer for A Lethal Inheritance, go to:
youtube.com/watch?v=naB8JzT9hQU

Review

From Publisher's Weekly - A science journalist and mental health advocate in San Francisco, Costello offers both an affecting chronicle of her family's mental illness and a useful guide to detection and prevention. In the end, Costello presents a book of vigorous personal and factual research. (Jan.)

Reviewed on: 10/24/2011

From NAMI E-News - Although schizophrenia is often described in scientific, medical or psychological terms, it is, like all illnesses, an intensely personal experience. By focusing on individuals with mental illness and their families Costello gives a good overview of where we are now in uncovering its causes and treatments. 11/2011

"This honest, lucid book examines the urgent problems of family history and early diagnosis in mental illness from a personal and scientific standpoint. It will be invaluable to families trying to understand their own history, and to those who have been blind to such history."
--ANDREW SOLOMON, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

"This book should be required reading for any parent with a family history of mental illness, for pediatricians, and for educators. Costello elegantly weaves personal history and scientific research into a compelling and profoundly important narrative..."
--AYELET WALDMAN, author of Bad Mother

"...A Lethal Inheritance is a graceful balance between science and memoir."
--LINDA GRAY SEXTON, author of Half in Love, Surviving the Legacy of Suicide, and Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Ann Sexton "

From the Author

How and Why I Came to Write A Lethal Inheritance...

I began this book project with the premise that the world didn't need another memoir of mental illness -- unless I could find a novel and useful reason for sharing the intimate details of what had been the worst decade of my life.

After dealing in 1998 with the diagnosis of my eldest son Alex at age seventeen with paranoid schizophrenia, I then confronted my own lifelong depression followed rapidly by my youngest son's depression and anxiety disorder -- while navigating the emotional and practical fallout. Nothing prepares you for such an unraveling -- particularly when you come from a family steeped in denial, addiction, and hidden mental illness, as mine was. Eventually I would see that these historical family dysfunctions and secrets were as central to the story I had to tell as were the present-day diagnoses, and treatment decisions I was encountering.

This is how I came to the decision to use my own family going back three generations as a case study on how mental illness and addiction traverse families.

From the book:

I've learned three important lessons on my journey through mental illness. First, that I've done things in the wrong order. If we, as parents, get treatment for our own psychological or addiction issues, our children will suffer far less mental illness. If they're already struggling with a mental health challenge, we'll be of much greater help to them. That leads to my second discovery: intervening sooner for a mental health problem is better than picking up the pieces later -- for everyone. Lastly, I've learned that although we're each born with inherited liabilities and assets, throughout our lives our minds become largely what we make of them. Put simply, nurture can trump nature.

Once we get these three things, the game has changed, and we're living in the prevention model of mental wellness where healthy minds rule.

To read an excerpt: alethalinheritance.com/about-the-book/excerpt/

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