Honest, informative, heart wrenching

People underestimate the toll of living with someone with mental illness. It is incredibly difficult, sometimes abusive and includes many behaviours not normally tolerated. This book covers some of this and not just the illness journey but of his loved ones. Thank you for your honesty and bravery.

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Insightful, emotional - a deep dive into mental illness and how it affects those who endure it and those who care

A reviewer of this work - ironically calling him or herself "Doc" - leaves a thoroughly unintelligent review that demonstrates a callousness I find chilling. Did he/she even read this book?

Mental / brain illness is hugely complex - often devastating, as is the case here - and differs from person to person, depending on diagnosis/diagnoses and life experiences, but when accompanied by suicidal ideation, which itself may be deliberately hidden by the person with a psychiatric disorder, it's often only in hindsight that we understand what we could have done 'better' if indeed that were even possible.

I think Sheila Hamilton explores the topic of mental health as it relates to her book pretty extensively, both subjectively and objectively, validating all those who suffer brain illness and those who love and care for those suffering from it in her brave and honest account to help make sense of what happened within her own family, while also helping others navigating this vast and treacherous landscape with the aim of detecting certain signs and when it's time to take action.

Unless you know how it feels to walk in anyone else's shoes, please think about how you word your review especially when it's someone's actual life and not a work of fiction.

The professionals get it wrong a lot; it's probably one of the most difficult areas of medicine to manage, so are you going to blame someone who spent years of her life trying her best to support that person while at the mercy of the minefield and often inhumane mistakes of psychiatry?

When you consider how highly Sheila thought of David, how deeply she loved him, what more could one person have done when 'fire fighting' her husband's severe illness while raising their child simultaneously?

It's not black and white.. The greyness of the mind, it's darkest nights may never be fully revealed or understood. The important thing is to learn and have compassion. And this family did everything they could for as long as they could. That includes David himself.

I feel deeply for this family and am thankful for what their story has taught me; it has resonated with me as I'm sure it has for many.

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Vital subject matter

Sheila tells her story with dignity, honesty and clarity.
Mental health is such a difficult and emotive subject, suicide even more so.
I wish her and her family well for the future.

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Eye opening

An eye opening read that was interesting and informative. To write this and try to understand suicide and mental illness is difficult however the author did it superbly

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Good story

narrator sounds like alexa (sorry) just didn't flow right for me. looking for the book so I can read it.

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Hard Work

Sorry I found this book such hard work. Didn’t enjoy it therefore not finished. So glad I didn’t pay for it.

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Why I was not to blame for my husband’s death!

One giant excuse after another.

A very repetitive account by a wife who married a guy who was spontaneous and fun and different but who didn’t dig deeper and question why he was like that. He should’ve stayed single.

Seriously, don’t bother with this - you won’t get those hours of your life back!

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1 person found this helpful