The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America

I lost my only child, my son, to schizoaffective disorder after years of trying to find the help he so desperately needed. He died from over-sedation in a state run mental health crisis unit. Maybe there is hope for others. This book should be required reading for every US citizen.

I admit I skipped thru much of the technical side of the book i.e. the disturbing lack of help for the mentally
ill in our nation, but I certainly enjoyed the writer's version of the hell he and his wife went thru with two
sons. Mr. Powers had me "engaged" in the story -- excellent author!!

Expertly and deftly researched, the author uses the historical backdrop of the mental health system both past and present with its tragedies as well as triumphs to weave a narrative of his personal experience with mental illness made manifest in both his sons.

Powers is an excellent writer, creating a narrative that deeply connects with his audience. Highly recommended!!

Interesting, well researched and current. Powers takes you through the journey of mental illness both historically and personally. The narrative ebbs in and out from hard cold facts about the treatment of the mentally ill through history to his emotionally charged encounter with mental illness. It gives us the opportunity to take a long look at our system and ourselves. I devoured the pages but simultaneously hoped the work wouldn't come to an end. Would highly recommended to anyone!

Difficult to read because it's so heartbreaking. My family member also suffers from schizophrenia. Even though he's med-compliant, he gets very little relief. Thank you, Ron, for shingin a light on this very serious problem.

This is an important addition to growing list of well written and researched accounts of the sorry state of mental healthcare in the US (See Pete Earley's "Crazy") And we should be grateful to Ron Powers for writing it. To have a child with schizophrenia is heartbreaking - to have two and to lose one to suicide is almost unimaginable.
Some may get a bit weary of Power's political commentary - assailing the Right in general and Ronald Reagan in particular - and his attacks on "Big Pharma" (while glossing over the fact that the idiocy of the patient privacy and 'civil rights of the patient' movement which handcuffs families from helping their loved ones is largely a liberal project) but for that he can be forgiven.
For those interested in the topic this book is hard to put down. The historical context he provides is important as one can see how we have come full circle in the US from putting the mentally ill in jail in the 1800's to once again doing so today. But the personal account of his struggles with his sons is what hold's one's attention.
The question remains, however, what to do to make it better - to make mental health policy both humane and efficacious in the US. No easy answers, but Power's book makes an important contribution in the effort to figure it out.

A powerful and gut wrenching book. It reminded me of reading, "The Emperor of all Maladies". The history of diagnosing and treating mental illness sounded just as crude and haphazard. Your personal story is so sad and you're very generous to share it. As devasting as any illness in a family can be it brings consolation to hear another's story and more so to witness your life today. You've managed to keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. That is something. That is hope.

As a clinical social worker with a special interest in the seriously mentally ill, I very much appreciated Ron Powers' personal and societal exploration of mental illness. As the father of two schizophrenic sons, one who took his own life, he knows the ravages of this disease firsthand. Despite a deep need for his family's privacy, he decided to write this book in order to enlighten others and share the appalling narrative of the way that those who are mentally ill have suffered - from their illness and at the hands of society.

This book is well-researched and it goes deeply into the history of how poorly those with mental illness have been treated throughout time. Seriously mentally ill people don't usually vote and they have no strong lobbies to create and support public policies and laws for their protection, care, and well-being.

Mr. Powers explores the debacle of the Community Mental Health act, signed by President Kennedy in 1963, an act meant to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill. Despite good intentions, this act ended up discharging most mentally ill patients from long-term hospitalization. Community mental health centers were supposed to fill the gap but this never came to fruition. Community mental health centers preferred to treat the 'walking wounded' and those in most need were left uncared for. Our mentally ill citizens have ended up in jail and on the streets.

Powers indicts the harmful effects of some people with powerful influence who spoke and wrote about the myth of mental illness, especially Thomas Szasz and L. Ron Hubbard. Their belief that mental illness does not truly exist led politicians, medical providers, and the public to partake in an anti-psychiatry movement.

The causation of mental illness is complicated and there are many types. We do know that there is a genetic component to Schizophrenia and most likely an experiential or environmental component as well. Genes for bi-polar disease have been found and it is well known that this illness as well as depression run in families. Mental illness research is not well-funded as are some more 'popular' diseases. This is a very serious concern because, as Mr. Powers points out, "one-fourth of the globe's people will experience some kind of mental illness in their lifetimes".

What is most poignant about this book is the toll that mental illness takes on families who love, care for and advocate for their ill family members. Often, resources are scarce and hospitalizations can be like a game of musical chairs with a mentally ill member going into the hospital then being released only to end up back in the hospital again shortly. Anti-psychotic medications can have a long list of unpleasant and sometimes deadly side effects that result in a high degree of non-compliance by the patient.

I thank Mr. Powers for writing this book. In my opinion, it joins the ranks of the most important books about mental illness that are accessible to the public, those by E. Fuller Torrey and Kay Redfield Jamison.

I found the chapters on American mental healthcare history interesting, but not much more than surface scratching. I thought the repeated digs at public servants, who often respond to armed and the violently mentally ill, particularly distracting and stereotypical of someone who doesn't understand the challenges of today's street level law enforcement, even when he commends the one instance mentioned in which one of his sons is detained by police for a mental health breakdown. The title is quite misleading, as there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country both professionals and volunteers with good intentions working with mentally ill, the author just doesn't like the standard of care. And there are some instances in which I found the author's depiction of his personal experiences almost smug, and probably far from the experiences of middle class Americans who can't afford to send their kids to private schools, private colleges, take them on trips to Europe, or buy them property so they can start a business from scratch. Nothing wrong with that, I just don't think most Americans can relate. No doubt Powers loves his boys, yet that love results in some narrative that goes far off the reservation of relevance, almost as if the publisher wanted Powers to add some extra pages to his manuscript. From this book I learned a few tidbits of trivia in regard to the history of mental healthcare in this country. I already knew there is much much more we could and should be doing. As far as the Powers family story which is about half the book's content, I just couldn't get to the point of feeling much empathy for them and that's the result of the author's ego. He just couldn't find the balance between bragging about his boys and discussing the issues of their mental illness.

Essentially an advocacy piece, the author shares the story of the challenges and heartbreak of dealing with schizophrenia. Both his sons are afflicted and the author and his wife are forced to navigate the confusing and confounding world of mental health. the story is told against the backdrop of the ugly history of mental health treatment.

I thought this book was well written and often times moving. However ultimately the on-sided approach was ineffective. The author's perspective and politics color every aspect of the book and ultimately he offers no solutions. He rails against eugenics or perhaps more accurately the misuse of it. Obvioiusly in the context of Nazi german, answers are easy. But does he feel the same way about parents who terminate a pregnancy rather than bring into the world a child with an untreatable, life impacting disorder? when one of his sons is in an accident and facing criminal prosecution, he naturally rallies to his defense. But he demonstrates little insight into the feelings of the family of the injured party. Even though she may have recovered and seemingly moved on, I wonder had the situations been reversed and his son been hurt, whether he would be so forgiving. The author has issues with the civil rights protections that seem to obstruct prompt treatment. But he seems to overlook his own historical sections where it is painfully clear just why these protections are necessary. Even though it is a moving portrayal of one family's anguish, it offers little in terms of suggestions or solutions. 3.5 stars

Writing this took a lot of courage, and I admired the author's determination to share his harrowing personal story, and generally found his telling of it moving and valuable.

Understandably, the author tries to set his personal experiences inside a larger frame, and thus undertakes a broader discussion of mental illness. This aspect of the book I found less successful. There is a lot of good, accessible, well-written discussion of mental illness out there, much of it written by well-informed and caring professionals. I don't think that the author's discussion does much to enhance his readers' understanding here. But that could be because I have read a lot of the less anecdotal and professional material. I suspect that many other readers will be in a similar situation. In any case, I view the mixing of the more personal narrative with the would-be arm's distance discussion of mental illness as less than successful; a shorter, more personal/autobiographical book would have been better, and more powerful.

A devastating, captivating, uplifting, and downtroddening combination of memoir and investigation, that takes off from a simple sentence that doesn't appear until p. 126 (which is a suitable place for it): "Something terrible happened to my sons, and I want to know what and why." Ron Powers finds out both and (along with his wife) suffers in the process. So will the reader suffer, but he/she will also be entertained (which great writing, no matter the subject, can do) and enlightened (darkly but piercingly).

The book is also a study in the life of a writer and offers as fine a description of "the writing life" (in general) as there must be anywhere: "isolated, incremental, intense, inherently frustrating as the writer searches for coherence and an elevation of language..." This book achieves both of that for which its author was searching.

Maybe you have a mental illness. Maybe a loved one does - or perhaps you've read, or seen, things in the media, which frequently skew and do not describe what it's like to have a mental illness accurately. We have a long history in our profession of treating people poorly. As a therapist, I fully admit this, and do my best to remember it when working with any client. As practitioners, we must acknowledge the dark history of mental health, and also acknowledge that the current industrial medical complex isn't always the best for every client, either. We must never repeat history.

Powers' book is excellent at telling history and warning against repeating it. He casts a very human lens on a subject most, unfairly I may add, treat as inhuman. At the end of the day, advocacy and honesty are what we need more with mental illness, and this book does an excellent job of talking about the past and how we must constantly work to improve the present and future.

Powers knows the tragedy of mental illness personally. Both of his sons have battled schizophrenia, and while his son, Dean, continues to live with his illness, his younger son, Kevin, committed suicide in 2005. Powers shares his own tragic story while also providing background information about mental illness and the way those who need help are treated in this country.

I enjoyed (that's perhaps not quite the right word since this topic is certainly tragic) hearing about Powers' own personal story. While the information and research are interesting, the personal anecdotes are what really make this book meaningful. Those who suffer from mental illness are more than a statistic. Powers proves that by sharing about his sons.

During this time in history there is a great deal in the news about mental illness, and I can't imagine anyone not being touched by it in some way personally, so Powers' book is especially important as we must find ways to help those in our society who most need it.

This book was emotionally exhausting to me at times. It was reading about their personal story that did it to me and because they've experienced my worst fear. Our brother is mentally ill and we've been struggling with it for almost three decades now. Unless someone has been through that they don't really know how much that takes out of you and how hard it is to watch someone you love struggle and erode away. The cycle of hope and despair, calm and chaos.
The book was very well-written and researched. There is no easy answer about what to do about the mental health crisis in America but something needs to be done. Speaking out and sharing personal stories like this is crucial to that.

Sometimes the right book comes along at just the right time. This was the right book for me in the fall of 2017. Never mind that it was looking like someone I care deeply about might be exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, but rather on a more spiritual level that I was unaware of how poorly our country protects yet another extremely vulnerable and marginalized group of people who are every bit as "American" as a Donald Trump or a Hillary Clinton, or you or I!

If you find yourself wondering why, when everything is going well for you and those you care about are doing fairly well but for some reason, there seems to be some nagging emptiness inside; Know this - none of us will ever experience the fullness of Joy as we could, when there are others and those that care about them, suffering like the Powers family, with the rest of us simply not having a care in the world about it. To defend the defenseless is to know God and to be known by Him!

Ron Powers, Thank You! for your courage to share what I'm sure will always be, memories of extreme pain. But know this, your book will help many. I'm sure of it!

“Thank you Ron Powers for writing your heart wrenching book about the abysmal failures of the mental health system in our country to deliver desperately needed care. Sharing the raw details of the stories of your beloved sons brings the informative material alive. I commend you for your strength, courage, and commitment to wake up the public. Your book catalyzes the kind of caring that stimulates badly needed change on behalf of all those who suffer, both those with mental illness and those who love them."
- Linda Bloom, co-author of That Which Doesn't Kill Us: How One Couple Became Stronger at the Broken Places

This is a good book overall twisting the history of mental illness with this family's personal story as well as a few other families stories as well.

This author does have some strong opinions on things and I disagree with a few. For example, while I know there are problems with "Big Pharma", I hope he does not help lead a movement of people that throw out the baby with the bathwater and hurt those of us for whom medication is our lifeline. He finds it necessary to tell us that lithium is "used in weapons grade nuclear fusion, airplane-engine grease, ceramics,optics, polyester clothing, and air purification." As someone living with bipolor, is that supposed to dissuade me from taking lithium? I'd drink battery acid to keep by self stable personally. I find it ironic that one thing that is keeping the author's son stable is shots of Haldol. The human body which includes the brain so complex. There is no perfect combination that fits everyone. It takes time, and unfortunately, time runs out for some before it is found. And as the author points out through his personal story, there is also the issue of compliance, which is not the fault of "Big Pharma".

He also speaks of bi-polar as a "milder" illness than size-effecive disorder. It's not a competition and if the result is someone taking thier own life. does it really, matter?

My heart bleeds for this family and I hope that writing this book was cathartic for the author.

This sad story - non fiction story at that - is Ron Powers history of his family's issues with mental illness that leads to the reason for his title of this book. Certainly there are those that care for people that might be described rather harshly as crazy, but what the title means is a criticism of how the mental health system has consistently received little support. Mental health has even lost support over the years. Ron takes the position that everyone could likely become schizophrenic if the conditions in our environment triggered it. At least in describing what happened to his two sons he suggests what could have provoked their illness was familiarity with recreational drugs in college. In any case, they both ended up involved with the various systems and hospitals and prison system since the withdraw of funding for mental health with the avowed goal of moving treatment to local systems - ended up replacing mental health hospitals with prisons instead. Agreed by practically everyone to be a moral dilemma and embarrassment. The situation for the Powers family is horrible and the book thus is a paean for improvement of the mental health system so other families do not have to go through this. Will it help?

Ron Powers has intertwined extremely important facts about Mental Illness, medications, politics, the still extremely lacking of Professional and Societal stigmas with his open and deeply moving personal life with his two sons who have mental illness. This is a book for professionals in all areas of responsibilities and it is a book for the families like ours who have deep stresses from trying to get the best help for their beautiful family members with mental health diagnoses. Thank you Ron.....You Are Making A Difference With deep respect Rosemary Richards

This is probably a touching, sad, and interesting story. But I am disappointed to say that despite many favorable reviews in prestigious publications (which is why I bought the book), I found it unreadable. If I start 100 books, I finish 99 of them, but this was the one out of a hundred that I just give up on. I feel badly saying so but that is the truth. The chapters alternate between the personal story of the author and his children, which is interesting, and the history of psychiatrists and their understanding of schizophrenia, which is absolutely and utterly boring. I wish the author had just written about his personal story. I wish I could return this for a refund -- I had to put it down after getting through 20-25% of it.

"No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America" easily qualifies as one of the most haunting books I have ever read. Author Ron Powers offers a unique perspective on the mental health system in America: the perspective of a parent whose children were plagued with schizophrenia. Powers' novel not only shares his story, but it seeks the truth from complacent politicians and physicians who have neglected to acknowledge the severity of the so called "epidemic" of insanity in America.
Although Powers spends the majority of this book sharing with readers a powerful and emotionally captivating recount of his life leading up to his son's death, he manages to, in my opinion, embark on a rocky path of political controversy. Perhaps my discomfort lies in the fact that politics have become such a heavy and exhausting topic lately, but I wasn't interested in Powers' bold expression of his political views through criticism of the American government and one sided arguments against politicians. While this criticism did offer further insight into Powers' feelings about the mental health system in America, there were a few chapters in which I found myself literally counting down the pages until he would end his discussion. But what else can be expected from a man who won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism?
Despite the fact that there were a few chapters I simply couldn't get on board with, those few unpleasant chapters left me craving more and more of Powers' stories about the lives of his two sons, Kevin and Dean. The book is skillfully structured so that the chapters alternate between in-depth analyses of the mental health system in the past and present, the science behind the disease (schizophrenia), and heartwarming- and wrenching-stories about the every day trials of life as a schizophrenic. I think Powers understood that alongside every information packed chapter, readers would need a brain-break of sorts- which led him to structure his book in this way.
The chapters of this book that were heartbreaking to read must have been equally, if not significantly more, heartbreaking to write. For Powers to take the time out of his life to make this attempt to humanize mentally ill people is a gift to readers in and of itself. Ron Powers thinks that by writing this book, he fulfilled an obligation, to the mentally ill and their families, to help Americans push past the stigma surrounding their mentally ill counterparts. In the beginning of the novel, he reveals that it has taken him roughly a decade to come to peace with his son's death and finally write this book. So on that note, all I can say is thank you. Thank you, Ron, for sharing such intimate and painful pieces of your life story with immense poise and grace.
This novel is an absolute must read for young adults and those interested in the lives of the mentally ill, and their families. While it is an intense read, it provides the reader with a new perspective on a heavy topic. This book will leave you speechless, and maybe even a bit shaken up, because of the ability Ron has to make you feel his joy, his pain, and everything in between. After reading, you will feel like you've just been on an old roller coaster that stalled and dangled you upside down for a while- a frightening yet thrilling experience. Take your time, soak it up, and appreciate Powers' willingness to share some of the darkest parts of his life with you.

The beginning of this book and other parts of this book are off the charts in the number of stars I would give it. The preface had me weeping it touched so deeply. Several other parts touched me deeply too -- saddened me for the abuse those who are need our help the most often don't get it. The part I would change is that the history has too many details. I know they are all important but I feel the thrust of this book is show us that we all need to advocate for the mentally ill. If we are going to see real change and better treatments it has to start at the private level rather than governmental. I felt Powers in some parts of recounting history showed his political and religious biases. I don't think this is necessary. I believe the readers can draw their own conclusions. Powers rightly feels very strongly about this. His family has suffered greatly and I am honored he would share some of the most precious parts with the world. In sharing the history it seems to me change happened when one or more persons took action on the compassion they felt toward those with mental illness. Usually these people had some personal experience with mental illness.It has to come from someone who feels it is a privilege to serve those who live with mental illness. A mental shift must happen in society to see that all persons, no matter how much it seems they can contribute to society, deserve to be treated with dignity and also it is so prideful to think we don't need some people. Everyone has a part in this world. Often the weakest can teach us the greatest lessons.It seems that government control often leads to greed and lust for power. When money and profit is put before people, there will always be trouble. This seems to have happened often in this population. I would have liked to see a chapter on the ones so many are scared of -- the violent mentally ill. A few stories about them to show that first it is a very small percentage of people and that there is profit to all if these people are treated rather than thrown into prison. A

Nobody Cares. That is the premise that Ron Powers offers at the beginning of this powerful book. Then he sets out to MAKE us care. And care we do... and care we will, forever after. On the one hand a brilliantly researched history of mental illness and its treatment, on the other, a deeply personal journey into a heart of darkness from which, at the end, rays of light emerge and offer a way forward. Scholarly and thoughtful, big-hearted and courageous, a book that must be read.

I had but a passing interest in anything mental health for reading material when I found this book. I selected it in focusing on current sociology topics and how our modern society operates, and found myself consumed with the intricacies of the mental health system in America. The impact this book has had on my wanting to understand mental health issues more in depth cannot be overstated, as the story of the author deeply affected me. I highly recommend it to anyone that even just stumbles across the name of the book. You won't be disappointed in the knowledge gained and the powerful story that is told.

This book gives amazing insight to the world of mental illness. Powers expertly and eloquently gives an insiders view to his families struggle with his sons schizophrenia. I really enjoyed the book as a whole, especially how evident it was that he put a large amount of time and effort into the research behind the book. As someone who has seen both sides of mental health treatment, I can agree with his conclusions whole heartedly. In treatment too much time is put into trying to medicate the problem rather than solve it, and the well being of the mentally ill seem to take a back seat to big pharma and insurance companies agendas. All to often I have seen people discharged from inpatient when they aren't ready resulting in relapses and a return to treatment facilities. It is all to true that "No one cares about the crazy people", and Powers brings attention to that and shows how it needs to change.

Extremely interesting book... a cross between creative nonfiction and a research report, Powers opens himself up and exposes his internal struggle, his son's upbringing and fall to mental illness, and shares staggering statistics that--hopefully--will shock you into action. The prose is excellent. (I also listened to a bit of the audiobook, and the narration is great too).

I was anticipating a lot less sentimental memoir and a lot more about public policy. I know far too well the stories of promising boys who develop schizophrenia, and I was looking for quite a lot more about the ways we might come together as a society to help them.

A courageous and heartbreaking book that needed to be written. I hope this book helps change the opinion about mental illness and how it's treated in this country. I commend Ron Powers for putting his experiences out there for the world.

I found the personal story fascinating, even though I don't like the author's style or his personality. I wonder if anyone edited this book, since the chapters on the history of mental illness are not interesting, save for the final chapter, which talks about what's current. They could have easily left them out. Also, why did the editors allow the author to use "twicer" instead of "twice more"? It made me cringe, but then much of this book does, and not in the way you might think.

I can't really recommend the book, but if you have family that suffers from schizophrenia, as I do, it is comforting to read about people's similar struggles.

This is an important book in understanding mental health in America and where we've come from, but it is also a riveting book as Mr. Powers delves into his personal family story so that any person reading the book can't help but relate if this were to happen to my son or sons. Excellent, important, heart-breaking yet joyous read.

Awesome book! I like how he weaves his family’s story in between chapters on the history of mental illness and how the mentally ill have been treated throughout history. Enlightening and appalling.

This book was incredible and powerful, it really shows how society completely view mental illnesses the wrong way. This book really speaks to people that have blankly looked at the mentally ill and just judged them without any second thought. Ron Power exquisitely executes a powerful message to society about understanding their struggles and hardships. To show just how much they aren't that different from us. Great Read!

In the late 1950s, the psychiatrist R.D.Laing and psychoanalyst Aaron Esterson spent five years interviewing eleven families of female patients diagnosed as 'schizophrenic'. The book "Sanity, Madness and the Family" on the store is the result of their work.

Eleven vivid case studies, often dramatic and disturbing, reveal patterns of affection and fear, manipulation, and indifference within the family.
But it was the conclusions psychiatrist R.D.Laing and psychoanalyst Aaron Esterson drew from their research that caused such controversy: they suggest that some forms of mental disorder are only comprehensible within their social and family contexts; their symptoms the manifestations of people struggling to live in untenable situations.

"True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is."~R. D. Laing

ALSO...Remember the breakthrough story by the BOSTON GLOBE depicted in the movie, "Spotlight" about where the Globe reporter recalls the real heart of the Church scandal­– the victims?

In another Boston Globe Investigation, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker uncovers a medical mystery every good family member should see themselves asking: "Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades?"
This breakthrough book about victims of mental health is called: "Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America" and it is the #1 Best Seller on the store in Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Industry books.
Make no small plans for they have no magic to stir man's blood~ Earl Schoaff

Some of the history of mental illness can seem repetitive and dry for those in the field who are fairly well versed in it, but the book as a whole is very informative with some incredibly powerful statements that advocate for those with mental illness from a lens better than most of us will ever have.

Heartbreaking and intense, this book explores the incredibly important and often ignored perspective of “crazy people”. Well researched, well written, the writer’s tragic personal story makes the book fly by. One of the best nonfiction books I’ve read.