Written by the woman who lived this story, the book brings the
reader inside the mind of a Bi-Polar Disorder patient in her own
words. All the chaos, highs, lows, delusions, anger, and deep
depression are felt in a way that could not ever be accurately
described by anyone who has not lived the story. The depth of the
urge to suicide is indelibly written. It is told with no holds
barred in the still voice that is often seen in trauma victims
describing what has happened to them. A distance that makes the
story very compelling and true. There is nothing asked of us other
than to believe the story and what it means. No requirement to
sympathize with the writer for what she has gone through.
We see her life with her mother's undiagnosed bi-polar swings and
final suicide through a child's eyes, never dreaming that the same
terrors would one day be hers. The illness does not surface until
she is an adult and married. From this point on, we travel through
her own mind, while at the same time she finally begins to
understand her mother. The family once again suffers the same fate
as her younger brother also is diagnosed. There seems to be nothing
to live for because nothing, no treatment yet used, could do more
than remove them from a life into a stupor from which they dare not
try to emerge.
Her father begins a quest to find a way to help his children in a
way that he had not been able to save his wife. All he wants is for
them to be safe. A chance meeting with an animal nutritionist
eventually leads to trying a new way, a nutritional concoction of
vitamins and minerals, based on the formula for quieting aggressive
hogs, "tail biters". Over the next few years we journey through the
miraculous recovery of the siblings. Indeed, both now lead healthy
and productive lives.
There are agonizing legal battles to get the product approved. The
futile fights with the Canadian government are spelled out
completely and succinctly and made me want to join in the fight! I
can see it exactly as if I had lived it. I would strongly recommend
this book for a number of reasons. For understanding of the
bi-polar progress, for the discovery and preliminary trials to
improve on any new medical discovery, and for how difficult it is
to bring government acceptance of alternative medicine for many
illnesses, are three main reasons. This is a real life, Autumn
lived this life and tells the truth as it is, plain and simple,
with suspense as to what will happen with the discovery, and the
final outcome. Read it, you will be glad you did.