This book is a gripping, brutally honest, true story of the author's journey through five psychotic episodes. At the age of 53, she was diagnosed with depression and psychosis. Over the next four years and five hospitalizations, the diagnosis became a schizo-affective disorder. This mental illness is considered a more severe form of schizophrenia. The author interweaves her psychosis with her life-long spiritual journey and looks for the gifts that this illness has brought to her. She believes that her experiences deepened her compassion for other beings and her relationship to the Universe. She gives practical examples of how to engage a person mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. She believes that these aspects of a person, including someone with a mental illness, cannot be separated. The author hopes that those who have a mental illness and their caregivers, family, friends, nurses, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, as well as the general public, may gain new insights into the treatment and nature of mental illness.
