Surrounded by Madness: A Memoir of Mental Illness and Family Secrets

by Rachel Pruchno Ph. D.

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Author: Rachel Pruchno Ph. D.

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 1457525593
ISBN 13: 978-1457525599

"What was the likelihood my adopted daughter would have my father's hazel eyes and my mother's mental illness?"

In this fiercely candid memoir, Dr. Pruchno, a scientist widely acclaimed for her research on mental illness and families, shows how mental illness threatened to destroy her own family. Not once, but twice.

As a child, she didn't understand her mother's episodes of crippling sadness or whirlwind activity. As a mother, she feared her daughter Sophie would follow in the footsteps of the grandmother Sophie never knew.

Unraveling the mysteries of her mother's and daughter's illnesses, Pruchno fought to preserve her marriage and protect her son. But it was not until she came to terms with her own secrets that she truly understood the destructive and pervasive effects mental illness has on families.

Surrounded By Madness is transforming. It will empower families to stop hiding and start talking when mental illness strikes.

Review

On the KIRKUS REVIEWS Recommended List of books. Says Kirkus Reviews:

"Penned in a vivid, literary style that bleeds anguish, Pruchno's story is a mother's worst nightmare. Since the book centers on a young person and leaves such a powerful impression, it would make a solid supplementary text for a college psychology course. Pruchno's feelings of desperation and powerlessness speak more to the reality of mental illness than an academic case study ever could. An unvarnished look at the destructiveness of mental illness, as told by a person who suffered at the hands of someone else's demons."

Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite

A heart-breaking memoir of a woman who loses both her mother and daughter to mental illness. Brings to light the plight of mentally ill patients and how badly equipped the system is to give proper care and support. Gripping and thought provoking.

The author speaks about how the strangling grasp of mental illness destroys the person and how family members succumb to the stigma of this illness and hide it. The book is a must-read - an empowering story. Discussion questions at the end help readers evaluate what the author has tried to convey.

From the Author

The book trailer video for Surrounded By Madness may be viewed by clicking the link to my Amazon author page in the More About The Author section below or by searching for "Surrounded By Madness" on YouTube.

More than 11.4 million people in the U.S. experience a mental illness severe enough to cause problems in their daily lives. For every person experiencing a serious mental illness there are family members who suffer as well.

As a child I watched my mother struggle with manic depression. As a mother, I fought beside my adopted daughter, diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder. For years, stigma and shame made me keep my mother's and my daughter's illnesses secret.

When my 18-year-old daughter stopped her treatments and ran away with a heroin addict, I knew there was nothing I could do to help her. In my grief, I started writing our story.

Hoping to learn from the experiences of others, I read dozens of memoirs written by people with mental illness and memoirs written by the parents and children of people with mental illness. Each memoir told the same story: turmoil, more turmoil, and then a happy ending. Sometimes the person with mental illness had extensive and expensive contact with the healthcare system, care well beyond the grasp of most people. Other times the recovery was so unbelievable I wondered whether a serious mental illness had really been evident.

I tried to reconcile the stories these memoirs told with the facts that I, a psychologist, knew about mental illness. Where were the memoirs written by people like me? People whose loved ones were homeless, in jail, or dead? Surely I wasn't alone.

It was then that I realized I needed to tell my story so that other families struggling with mental illness would understand they are not alone and that hiding mental illness is destructive.

Surrounded By Madness is the product of a 3-year journey. I worked with a writing coach who helped me understand narrative arc and an editor who helped polish my writing. The comments of my several rounds of early readers helped me learn how to tell my story.

I hope reading Surrounded By Madness encourages families struggling with mental illness to tell their stories and that it helps people who have not had direct contact with mental illness to understand the challenges mental illness presents to family members.

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