Story Of My Life: Being Grown Up By A Mentally Ill Mother And Reclaiming Myself: How To Assert Yourself With Confidence

We are born without the right to choose who will be our parents. Will they all healthy or one of them be bipolar? We cannot decide that. The only thing we can do is to accept and overcome those difficulties.

This book is a brutally candid memoir that chronicles the impact that growing up with a mentally ill mother had on me and how that experience continues to compromise me as an adult.

"I heard he was just diagnosed with a mental illness. Can you believe that?" The speaker is laughing so hard she can hardly get the words out. "That sure explains a lot."
The two women sitting in the pedicure chairs next to me are now both laughing. My heart sinks as the anger boils up inside me. I can feel my heart start to race as my jaw clenches. The rest of my muscles tense up. I find myself staring intensely at the television on the wall to prevent myself from looking over at them.
I think to myself, Oh my God, they are sitting here belittling something that impacts so many people's lives and is incredibly painful to so many, including me. They could be laughing about my mother.
In some ways things have not changed over the past thirty years. These women have absolutely no clue how hard it is on those suffering from mental illness or on those wrapped up in the lives of the mentally ill. No wonder I kept my story a secret. To be honest, I feel a little vulnerable sharing it now, but it's time.
I wonder how many of us are confronted with this insensitivity day after day. I wonder how many of us--whether we are one of the fourteen million Americans or 450 million across the globe afflicted with mental illness, or one of the millions of loved ones forced to care for them--suffer even more challenges in our already difficult lives due to this level of ignorance.

And much more...