My Schizophrenic Life: The Road to Recovery From Mental Illness - "Compelling" says Library Journal

Sept. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Vancouver artist, Sandra Yuen Mackay, has struggled with the symptoms of schizophrenia and with the effects of the medications that she needs to keep the symptoms under control from the age of 15 . Now in her 40's, Sandra is married, a successful artist, writer and an advocate for improving the knowledge about this disease.

Ms Mackay" vividly re-creates her world of schizophrenia introducing readers to a whole new stratum of perception" according to Library Journal.  It is an enlightening portrayal of her illness, hospitalizations, relationships, therapeutic activities and quest for recovery. It will hold readers captive. The book, they said, "provides a surprisingly gripping narrative similar to An Unquiet Mind written by Kay Redfield Jamison.

Best selling author and psychiatrist, Julie Holland, said that "there are precious few people who have experienced psychosis and can convey it accurately, clearly and concisely. Sandra Mackay's story is an important one for all of us in the mental health field - doctors, patients and their families."

David Laing Dawson, a psychiatrist, writer and film maker said that she "puts the reader nicely in her shoes experiencing the paranoia, misinterpretations, hallucinations." Dr. Dawson is the author of Schizophrenia in Focus and the soon to be released The Adolescent Owner's Manual.

Susan Inman, author of After Her Brain Broke: Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity called My Schizophrenic Life an "important book (that) should be read by anyone wanting to understand how someone can recover from schizophrenia".

Sarah Sinanan, Coordinator, The Art Studios Vancouver, BC called this book  "a fascinating perspective of growing up and developing a mental illness early in life, courageously told!

Sandra MacKay has written a fast-paced, interesting and readable experience of learning to live with a complex mental illness; .... She writes with keen insight so that the reader is part of the experience and learns from it simultaneously. The ongoing dialogue between Sandra, her family and her caregivers offers the reader a sense of the roller coaster ride in dealing with the mental health system and shows also her transition to the road of recovery.

This is an authentic and honest journey through an illness experience that teaches us the value of individual effort and the recovery process.

For more information on this book visit http://www.bridgeross.com/mackay.html

My Schizophrenic Life: The Road to Recovery From Mental Illness is published by Bridgeross Communications (ISBN 978-0-9810037-9-5, $19.95, 210 pages) and is distributed by Ingram Books. It is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters/Indigo and in kindle format.

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Coming next from Bridgeross is The Adolescent Owner's Manual by Dr. David Laing Dawson - A highly readable guide for parents of teens