Welcome to my blog!

Here I’ll address the same topics you’ll find in my book, American Madness. 

We’re told that one out of four Americans suffer from mental illness. The term “mental illness” implies so much that is frightening or negative. But this statistic counts everything that insurance could be billed for, that is, anything that has a DSM diagnostic code.  That could mean a mild and short-lived depression, a bout of mild anxiety, or occasional insomnia.  None of which I would call “mental illness.”

On the other hand, a few of us (about 1%) suffer from schizophrenia, and about 3% suffer from bipolar disorder.  These are serious mental illnesses, the sort that leave people disabled if not treated properly.  These are true medical illnesses.  A wide variety of treatment approaches, from body work to psychoanalysis, can be helpful with mild anxiety or insomnia.  But serious mental illness is a brain disorder and requires intensive treatment, one part of which is medical. 

American Madness is about serious mental illness.  It’s about what these illnesses do to the individual and to family members who struggle to help their loved ones. It’s about what it takes to provide successful treatment. And it’s about the illnesses themselves—how we recognize them, how we understand them and how it feels to be the affected individual.