(Ep 26) Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness with Author Suzanne Sherman
Author Suzanne Sherman discusses her new book Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness, growing up with a mother diagnosed with schizophrenia and who eventually died by suicide. You can learn more about Suzanne and her story here. With September being National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, this episode is a reminder to get help and hope for yourself or anyone you know.
Author Suzanne Sherman joins me to discuss her memoir, Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness. Here’s some of what we chatted about…
- What happens when you’re a child and the person who is supposed to make the world feel safe is fighting a reality no one else can see?
- Suzanne talks about her mother’s apology after the first near-fatal suicide attempt, the kids going to their bedrooms because they couldn’t process it, and about guilt, loving her Mom, and, yet, needing to leave to survive.
- Suzanne chooses to talk about family silence. She says the siblings never talked about what happened and that her book finally led to conversations with her brother.
- Suzanne’s father didn’t believe her mother’s voices and delusions were real, and her mother ultimately couldn’t remain married to someone who didn’t believe her.
- Not the schizophrenia, not the woman who died by suicide, but your mother. What would you want her to know?