Cry Depression, Celebrate Recovery: My Journey Through Mental Illness - 9781450279222

Advance Praise for Cry Depression, Celebrate Recovery

"(This) book is a model of hope. Growing up with an alcoholic father, she struggled with depression, eating disorders, and psychosis. She is a gifted and talented musician with a lovely sense of humor. This is the story of one woman who would not take 'no' for an answer. She has left no stone unturned in her pursuit of wholeness. She has transformed her life with the help of God and many caring people."
-Caroline Penberthy, MSW, LCSW

"I love Barbara Altman's book on her recovery from mental illness. I'm going to use the book with my clients, and I will recommend it to anyone with a mental illness."
-Marigene DaRusha, Minister, Center for Spiritual Living, Maryland Heights, Missouri

"Barbara Altman has shared the harrowing experiences of her life in a way that sheds light on mental illness and alcoholic family systems and the infl uence of both on a person's development. It also sheds light on the fact that help is often not available to children because adults do not or cannot understand them and tend not to believe them. ..."
-Patricia A. Antle, MSW, LCSW

As a child, Barbara Altman dreamed of earning a degree in music and becoming a concert pianist. Instead, at age sixteen, she was called to the principal's office, labeled schizophrenic, and told she'd wind up in a mental hospital if she didn't immediately seek psychiatric help. In this memoir, Altman describes her battle with mental illness and discusses both traditional and non-traditional methods of treatment.

Cry Depression, Celebrate Recovery narrates Altman's tumultuous journey. At age fifteen, the voices in her head became more persistent; hope for recovery plummeted. At eighteen, she experienced a hideous hallucination: her face was distorted, eyes at the bottom and mouth at the top, ears sitting at strange angles, no nose, features twisted to the left. At forty-three, she despaired of finding anyone who had experience with brain abnormalities.

More than just a memoir about the struggles involved with mental illness, Cry Depression, Celebrate Recovery is the story of a family's survival through the trauma of alcoholism and the anguish of anxiety disorder. It tells of God's goodness shining forth in those who devote their lives to helping the mentally ill. It is Altman's story of a transformation from victim to survivor and from mental illness to health.