Beyond Schizophrenia: Michael's Journey

by Susan Frances Dunham, Larry Hayes (Foreword by)

Overview

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

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615990351
Publisher:	Modern History Press
Publication date:	12/05/2010
Series:	Reflections of America
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Born in Cleveland, the "later in life," unexpected seventh child of eight, I spent my pre-school years living above my father's furniture store. "Joe Ralph Furniture" was a profitable but mostly a family operation, with my mother the bookkeeper and my older siblings doing the manual labor. Each summer, my mother loaded up her tribe of children to spend three glorious months in a cement block cottage on the shores of Lake Erie. There my older siblings had jobs working for our grandmother at "Saylor's Place", a restaurant that specialized in smoked ribs, hosting a casual atmosphere along with white-tablecloth dining. My grand¬mother also owned a small marina and motel which required a teenage work force, easily fulfilled by my six older siblings. Eventually we left the big city and moved to Port Clinton, Ohio, a small community located on Lake Erie, where my father became as a manufacturer's sales rep in the furniture industry. I grew up in a "turn of the century" house that was spacious enough to house our large family, where faith, family unity, and a strong work ethic were the absolute rules. Why are you uniquely qualified to write this book In 1976, I graduated from Sandusky School of Practical Nursing and enjoyed a variety of experiences performing my own "art" in nursing. Three years in a hospital environment, five years in a nursing home setting and two in private duty nursing provided a wealth of information about the human spirit. I learned that patients are people, not diagnoses! During my brief tenure in nursing, I heard many times that the "fractured femur" in Room 108 wasn't comfortable on his current pain medication. Some¬times, the "congestive heart" in Room 110 needed increased diuretic because their urinary output wasn't sufficient to match their intake of fluids. Or, it was the "old schizophrenic" in Room 102 whose blood pressure was up. In report, none of them had names  just health problems that needed to be resolved. For many years, I cared for "people" who had a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia and suffered other health problems. Somehow, in my youth, I understood the sadness of their brain disorder. Just at the moment of final maturity, their lives had been stolen. They were left behind, not allowed to go forward to reap the benefits of their hard work. Some had been confined to mental institutions for as long as fifty years. I under¬stood that for them, "life really wasn't fair." Why did you write this book? At first my writing was nothing more than journaling, writing short vignettes out of pain and catharsis. As time went on, I believed I had actually started writing a book. In the beginning, I was unsure whether the ending would be one of tragedy or triumph. I simply knew I was compelled to tell our story. I wanted to put a beautiful face that belonged to a brave, kind spirit on a tragic, horrific disease. I hoped that by introducing Michael as a healthy "all-American" kid, a real person, that anyone could identify him with their own child. Perhaps I could separate his lovely being from an unfortunate diagnosis  a label  and cause others to understand that he was a person suffering from schizophrenia, and not a schizophrenic. My very first thought of wisdom on mental illnesses was: If this could happen to Michael, it could happen to anyone. I under¬stood that once you tell the truth, you can't "un-tell" it, and I realized that there was indeed risk involved. But my brave son Michael encouraged me to go forward. My greatest aspiration became reaching the parents of children who had been recently diagnosed, in their early, painful mourning period. I wanted these parents to believe that no matter what they were witnessing and no matter what pain their child was enduring, recovery was possible.

Table of Contents

Foreword iii

Acknowledgments v

Prologue vi

Part I – Foreshadowing Events 1

Chapter 1 – “I Dreamed I Was a Broken Boy” 2

Chapter 2 – When Did This Start? 9

Chapter 3 – Pieta for Michael 22

Part II – The Wrath Of God 24

Chapter 4 – 7:00 AM, July 29, 2005 25

Chapter 5 – Our Return Trip, August 2, 2005 28

Chapter 6 – The Next Morning 37

Chapter 7 – Inside the Double-Locked Doors 40

Chapter 8 – First Call for Help 44

Chapter 9 – Three Days in the Hospital 46

Chapter 10 – Two Days and One Night at Home 50

Chapter 11 – Ten Days in the Hospital 56

Chapter 12 – The Day of Reckoning 63

Chapter 13 – Remembering Mike 66

Chapter 14 – Discharged Again 81

Chapter 15 – My Brother Michael 85

Chapter 16 – Ninety Days and Nights 89

Chapter 17 – Ativan 97

Chapter 18 – Why I Chose to Tell the Truth to My Customers 101

Chapter 19 – Prognosis 103

Chapter 20 –The Verdict and the Sentence 106

Part III – Looking Back (1959 – 1984) 109

Chapter 21 – “They” Were Always There 110

Chapter 22 – My Experiences as a Hospital Nurse 116

Chapter 23 – Five Years at Maple Tree Nursing Home 126

Part IV – Michael’s Recovery 134

Chapter 24 – Lois 135

Chapter 25 – Could it Happen to You? 137

Chapter 26 – The World’s Greatest Actor 140

Chapter 27 – Remission 147

Chapter 28 – 2007 150

Chapter 29 – Stigma and Ignorance 156

Chapter 30 – Education and Hope 160

Chapter 31 – Keeping Good Company 163

Chapter 32– Proud Parents 165

Chapter 33 – Conclusion 169

Epilogue 171

About the Author 174

Appendix A - Recommended Reading 178

Appendix B - Internet Resources 181

Index 183

Editorial Reviews

"Susie Dunham's heroic, heart-rending story in Beyond Schizophrenia 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. All American Mike is more than "a perfect son." He's a shining example of success for 3 million Americans who suffer in silence."
--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. Beyond Schizophrenia: Michael's Journey is a must read."
--Bill MacPhee, Founder/CEO of SZ Magazine

"Susie Dunham holds nothing back. She is so refreshingly honest and personal that I found myself wanting to give her and every family member a big hug through their tears of courage."
--Larry Hayes, author of Mental Illness and Your Town: 37 Ways to Help and Heal

"This is a powerful memoir that captures the struggles many families encounter in helping a loved one with mental illness. Susan Frances Dunham's deep devotion to and support of her son are inspiring."
--Michael J. Fitzpatrick, Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

"Before reading Beyond Schizophrenia: Michael's Journey, I had a very generic vision of what schizophrenia was. Dunham's book really opened my eyes and provided me with a very clear picture of the disease from the symptoms all of the way to the side effects of treatment options. I believe this book would be an excellent required reading choice for many healthcare related college classes. I commend Dunham for opening up and sharing with the world her family's experiences."
--Kam Aures, Rebecca's Reads

"I loved the honesty in this book and the will to not give up regardless of what others said. Family members are often the only advocates for their loved one. What the author shares will say more about this illness than any textbook or class. If nothing else, readers will learn what it is truly like to live with someone who has a mental illness and have no control over anything."
--Carol Hoyer, PhD, Reader Views

From the Publisher