A Broken Life: : Mental Illness or Addiction

ISBN-13: 9781517344993 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 200 str.

Patricia Sutton Burgess

Opis

Michael was adopted at the age of 3 months into a home where he was loved and where he was a happy little boy. At age three, a baby brother came to share the home with Michael. About a year later, Michael began to change. His parents would later learn that he was raped by a neighbor boy and the life of his brother was threatened. Michael's life was one of violent aggression, resentment of authority, sullen mood swings, and failure to perform in school. At age 21, he went to work as a Correctional Officer and after a year was taken hostage and repeated raped by a death row prisoner. The following years were filled with anguish, nightmares, psychiatric care, drug abuse, alcoholism, and chaos. This book details Michael's life and his suffering as it affects the entire family. The younger brother is compelled to share the bedroom with Michael as a youth and to endure the nightmares, pouting, and bullying. The sister is put through the same things. The parents seek help from variety of doctors from family practice physicians to pediatric psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and support groups. School is a chore for the whole family. Gifted in art, Michael receives a college scholarship; however, in college he becomes the object of bullying and name calling which leads him to fighting and even arrest. The family's struggle to cope with Michael and his problems exerts a great burden for every member. Because the father is a minister, the family moves often which may or may not be an asset to Michael. At length, after the prison hostage experience, Michael becomes the victim of PTSD and endures even more harrowing nightmares and actions. Anxious to be independent, he befriends and is befriended by questionable people who take advantage of him in many ways. Returning to live at home on Workman's Compensation, Michael cares for his dying father with great compassion. His father's death thrusts him back into the real world and a new job in a different location where he is again thrown into drug and alcohol abuse and sent away for rehab for the third time. There he meets a lovely young woman, also a patient. Upon their release, they begin to live together and Michael seems to have the life he so desperately sought. At length, the drugs again enter his life and break up that relationship. Eventually, Mike gets a DUI and is put on extended leave to try to get himself together. The exploits of that chapter of his life reveal the darkness in which he has been living for all of his life. At length he enters a year long Narconon program which helps him to kick his drug habit and even to become a counselor himself. Back home, he has his dream, a place of his own, a car, and a steady income from his retirement and disability income. One would think that finally there would be peace. Herein lies the most dramatic chapters of his life The story is told by Michael's mother who seeks to answer the question "Why?" The broken life of her son leaves her with many questions and memories. The story of this young man should be read by all young people in an effort to see clearly the effects of drugs and alcohol and the total despair that they cause. As well, the lesson is that no matter how terrible one's life is, drugs and alcohol only cause more problems for the young person and for all of those who love him.