From Suicide Attempt To 12 Hospitalizations To a Neuroscientist And Researcher in Schizophrenia

May 22, 2012 - PRLog -- When Quietness Came is the true story of a young woman studying neuroscience who, in her final undergraduate year, has a psychotic break, attempts suicide and ends up in hospital. Her struggles to get well and to pursue her PhD are described in this book. Her story is geared to  people from a variety of backgrounds. As a neuroscientist, Erin reaches out to the medical community who need to hear this side of the patient. As a schizophrenic, she reaches out to others struggling with this disorder, hoping to draw alongside and offer empathy and hope. Finally, she wants the general public, family and friends of people with schizophrenia to be better able to understand and sympathize with those afflicted.

Erin Lynne Hawkes was born in Moncton, New Brunswick in 1979. In 2001, while completing a BSc in Biology at Mount Saint Vincent and Dalhousie Universities in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she underwent her first major psychotic break and spent four and a half months in a psychiatric hospital. Nevertheless, she graduated in 2002 with Honours and was recognized with the Hugh Bell award as “most likely to succeed in science.” After being chosen for an NSERC scholarship (National Science and Research Council), she moved to Vancouver and earned an MSc in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia (UBC), despite numerous hospitalizations and  medication trials. Employed now in a Neuroscience laboratory at UBC, she has contributed to a number of academic papers and has published two personal pieces in Schizophrenia Bulletin's “First Person Account” series. This is her first book.

The introduction is written by Dr. Richard, O'Reilly, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario.

Susan Inman, the author of After Her Brain Broke: Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity, said "this vividly written new memoir plunges us into the painful experiences of psychosis. Erin's long journey to learn to manage the symptoms of schizophrenia is an eye opener ....."

She went on to say that "this should be required reading for all psychiatry residents, psych nursing students, and other mental health professionals who want to improve the experiences we offer to people in the throes of severe mental illnesses".

On the other side of the bushes behind Erin in the above photo is the Psychiatric Assessment Unit (PAU) at the Vancouver General Hospital and its patio. Erin was a patient in that unit numerous times and once attempted an unsuccessful escape from the patio when she and other patients were taken outside for some fresh air. Her attempt led her right into the arms of a security guard who happened to be on a smoke break.

When Quietness Came will be officially launched on June 5, 2012 at the Vancouver Public Library by Bridgeross and the Vancouver North Shore Schizophrenia Society. For details see http://bridgeross.com/hawkes.html

You can also hear an interview with Erin from Healthyplace.com radio on that website

The book can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters/Indigo in Canada and is available in Kindle. It is distributed worldwide by Ingram