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

On the KIRKUS REVIEWS Recommended List of books.xa0 Says Kirkus Reviews:"Penned in a vivid, literary style that bleeds anguish, Pruchno's story is a mother's worst nightmare. xa0Since 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.xa0An 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. xa0 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. xa0Discussion questions at the end help readers evaluate what the author has tried to convey. 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.xa0xa0As 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.xa0xa0When 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. xa0xa0Hoping 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. xa0xa0I 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.xa0xa0It 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.xa0xa0I 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. From the Inside Flap Acclaim for Rachel Pruchno's SURROUNDED BY MADNESS "An important, poignant voice rooted in one family's experience.xa0 Will help move communities beyond dialogue to action." Michael J. Fitzpatrick, M.S.W.Executive Director National Alliance on Mental Illness "A heart rendering but honest story ... [that] will help others avoid the self-blame and diminish the heartbreak that severe mental illness can impose." Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H.Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Co-author of The 36 Hour Day "Reading Surrounded By Madness is like watching the inevitable train crash that you can't stop from happening. Poignant, vivid, tragic, yet ultimately resilient." Stephen P. Hinshaw, Ph.D.Professor, Dept. of Psychology - University of California at BerkeleyVice-Chair for Psychology, Dept. of Psychiatry - University of California at San Francisco "Dramatic insights into the plight of families. Humanizes a difficult problem. A must read." Gerald N. Grob, Ph.D.Henry E. Sigerist Professor of the History of Medicine EmeritusRutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research "A report from the front lines of the daily battles of mental illness and a first-hand account of loss, this is a compelling book for clinicians, scholars, and family members trying to understand chronic mental illness." Michael A. Smyer, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology & Provost Bucknell University "Honest and heartbreaking and sure to initiate important conversations about mental illness - the first step toward reducing stigma." Christine Ferri, Ph.D.Associate Professor of PsychologyThe Richard Stockton College of New Jersey "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. RACHEL PRUCHNO is Endowed Chair & Professor of Medicine at Rowan University's School of Osteopathic Medicine and Director of Research at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University. Dr. Pruchno has been the Principal Investigator on numerous research grants funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Retirement Research Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, authored 10 invited book chapters, and co-edited Challenges of an Aging Society: Ethical Dilemmas, Political Issues . She has served as Editor-in-Chief of T he Gerontologist , a leading scientific journal, since 2011. She is married with four children, two of whom are dogs. Read more