Surrounded By Madness: A Memoir of Mental Illness and Family Secrets by Rachel Pruchno, Ph.D. An author interview about her memoir.

 Rachel Pruchno, Ph.D. is located in New Jersey. Surrounded By Madness: A Memoir of Mental Illness and Family Secrets was released on March 24, 2014. Dr. Pruchno is a psychologist , presently Endowed Chair, and Professor of Medicine at Rowan University. More information about the author will follow the interview. 

Andrea: Can you briefly share what 'Surrounded By Madness' is about?

Dr. Pruchno: Surrounded By Madness chronicles the experiences I've had as the daughter of a mother and mother of a daughter with severe mental illness. As a child and as a mother, I hid the mental illnesses from which my loved ones suffered. As a psychologist, I understood how important it is to break the silence. If we don’t talk about mental illness, we will never make progress in terms of diagnosis and treatment.

Andrea: How difficult was writing this memoir? 

Dr. Pruchno: Writing the first draft was therapeutic. I cried a lot and so did my husband. After that, I enjoyed learning to write memoir. Because I knew I wanted people to understand, I worked hard to make the book as engaging as possible.

Andrea: Did you ever feel reluctant to publicly share details about what happened in your family?

Dr. Pruchno: For more than 40 years, I didn’t tell people about my experiences.  Even once I started writing, I told people it was a book about being the mother of a child with mental illness. Once I came to terms with my daughter’s mental illness, I tackled my mother’s illness. I think it’s safe to say my “coming out” was a process.

Andrea: Your mother struggled with manic depression, and ultimately committed suicide at 51. Did you worry about your own mental health?

Dr. Pruchno: Yes, I most definitely did. Because my mother and I were alike in so many ways – our looks, our personalities, our sense of organization, our intelligence – I was sure that mental illness would be my destiny. As I experienced each age – the age at which she first showed signs of illness, the age at which she killed herself – I was sure that I would follow in her footsteps. Happily, I didn’t.

Andrea: Does the book focus on your adopted daughter? Please share a little about how she ties into your story.

Dr. Pruchno: My husband and I adopted Sophie and took her home from the hospital when she was 3 days old. We cherished her. The book shows how Sophie’s mental illness developed and how my husband and I worked to help her.  It shows the inadequacies of the medical system as we experienced them and the flaws of our legal system. It shows how mental illness pervades families and devastates them.

Andrea: After three years of writing this memoir, did the process resolve any unanswered questions that you may have had about how chronic mental illness?

Dr. Pruchno: I learned that, no matter what resources a family may have and how hard a family may try to deal with the issues and help the person who suffers from mental illness,  mental illness has the potential to destroy all in its path. I learned that while we can protect our children when they are young, once they turn 18, parents are virtually powerless to help them.

Andrea: You are married with children. How did your immediate family feel about your decision to write a memoir? Were they involved in deciding how you would tell the story?

Dr. Pruchno: My husband and my brothers were very supportive of my writing the memoir. My husband listened to me read each chapter as I wrote it. He corrected my grammar and punctuation. He helped me remember many of the details. My brothers filled in gaps as I struggled to understand our mother’s experiences. My son was 14 when I started writing.  One of the first things I had to do was tell him that my mother had committed suicide.  He read an earlier version of the book and corrected some of my writing errors. While the men in my life have been supportive, however, they were not involved in deciding how I would tell the story. I worked with a writing coach who helped me understand narrative arc and an editor who helped me polish the writing. 

Andrea: What would you say to families who are currently struggling with mental illness?

Dr. Pruchno: One simple message: don’t hide. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell the schools. Don’t be ashamed. You need all the support you can get.

Andrea: Could reading this book offer solutions or coping mechanisms to anyone touched by mental illness? If so, how?

Dr. Pruchno: I hope so. I hope Surrounded By Madness helps others touched by mental illness understand that they are not alone. I hope it helps people know that telling people about their experiences is critical and that it helps them ask others for help.

Andrea: Who is your target audience?

Dr. Pruchno: 
 1. Families of people with mental illness.
 2. Students and faculty in psychology, medicine, and social work
 3. Memoir readers

Andrea: What kind of feedback have you received thus far?

Dr. Pruchno: People tell me the book is gripping – that they can’t put it down and that they’re amazed at what I’ve lived through.

Purchase links: The book is available through most online booksellers. Amazon.com seems to be one of the few websites offering a pretty good discount:  http://tinyurl.com/k5xvmsz

Social media/contact information: The book trailer is on YouTube.com:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CypGRs0HjvU
Author website:  www.RachelPruchno.net
Book website:  www.SurroundedByMadness.net
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/surroundedbymadness
Author’s Psychology Today blog:  www.psychologytoday.com/blog/all-in-the-famly

About the Author
Rachel Pruchno is Director of Research at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging (http://www.rowan.edu/som/njisa/) and Endowed Chair, Professor of Medicine at Rowan University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University.
Dr. Pruchno has been the Principal Investigator on numerous research grants funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Retirement Research Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, 10 invited book chapters, and co-edited Challenges of an Aging Society: Ethical Dilemmas, Political Issues. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Gerontologist (http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/), a leading scientific journal, since 2011.
As a weekly blogger, since January 2014, Dr. Pruchno has been contributing to PsychologyToday.com, the website of the magazine Psychology Today. The blog, “All in the Family: Mental Illness and Caregiving Across the Generations,” may be viewed at www.PsychologyToday.com/blog/All-in-the-Family.
She is married with four children, two of whom are dogs.
If you would like more information about Dr. Pruchno’s academic work, including her CV and publications, please visit her personal website at www.RachelPruchno.net.

Ebony Canion was left for dead. Her new book offers hope to overcome adversity. Read her interview.

 Ebony Canion's book, Left For Dead, is a new book release. The Ohio based author stopped by the Nook to share a behind the scenes look about her true story of survival. 


Andrea: Welcome, Ebony. Can you please share a little bit of background about your story, and why you shared it publicly online?

Ebony: I am a 36 year old widow from Cleveland, Ohio and mother of four beautiful children with quite a story to tell! I'm a Survivor of many things such as rape, molestation, domestic violence, losing my husband at a young age, and most recently my "Survival Story." On June 30th 2012, I was with family enjoying my birthday weekend, only to return my sister's home and find trouble waiting on us. Once arriving there around 2 A.M. we noticed a car with 5 females in my sister's driveway. They were asked to leave but they refused to leave the driveway. This resulted in an altercation that I was trying to prevent by being the peace maker, but during this attempt I was struck by one of the females, which resulted in me defending myself and my family helping. There were 4 of us and 5 females. After the altercation was broken up, these 5 females got into their car, which they finally removed out of the driveway before the altercation, only to back into a driveway across the street. The driver hit me head on, dragging my body that was folded in half up under their car for almost 200 feet, as my family chased the barely moving car. They fled the scene after my body was released. The only reason my lifeless body was released from up under the car is because they turned a corner!

 I was in the hospital for 4 months, spending 2 of them in an induced coma. I suffered multiple injuries including a broken leg and pelvis, dislocated spine (which all have rods and screws in them) a fractured shoulder and jaw, 7 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, my entire back had road burn and needed a skin graph, missing teeth, I nearly bit my tongue off, and the lower left side of my face was peeled up and of course both had to be sewn back on. I also had a small amount of blood on my brain, a hole on my right side that my doctor described as "the size of a shark bite," and scars from head to toe.

I wasn't expected to live and if I did I was expected to possibly be a vegetable, or maybe even paralyzed. But it's now almost 2 years later and I'm here today by the Grace of God to tell my story! I had to learn to do everything again. I am still learning to walk again, but I will be walking real soon trust me! LOL! I still can't feel my feet fully but feeling is coming back slowly but surely. I'm walking with the assistance of a cane, but that will soon be going in the trash. I know this because I have faith in a God that has the final say so on everything! That is the reason I decided to share my story. I wanted the world to see what God had done in my life, and I knew that doing that would help so many people who had lost hope in all types of situations. Therefore, I created my social media pages, never expecting it to reach as many people as it has, but I'm grateful that it has touched so many people.

Andrea: What sparked the idea to write a book?

Ebony: I've always been the type of person to help other people. I knew that my story could help somebody, simply because I've been through so many things and I'm still standing. I decided that writing a book would be the perfect way to help people. I could tell my story and inspire and uplift people all at the same time...and that works for me!

Andrea: Having 30,000 Instagram followers tells us that you're connecting with people authentically. You created
http://thesurvivalstory.org and started your t-shirt line, too. What would you tell anyone about starting over in life after experiencing great difficulty?

Ebony: Well I actually started my page to first give God the Glory and honor he deserves for giving me a second chance at life, and I knew that all else would follow after that. When I speak of all else I'm referring to him sending someone my way who may have needed to read my post that particular day. Some of those people have had to start over after experiencing great difficulties in life. I would tell those people to trust in God in all that he takes from your life and all that he replaces in your life. Every single thing happens for a reason and you have to take from those situations and get strength from them, not let them weaken you! And you absolutely can't give up no matter what!

Andrea: You were a widow raising 4 children at the time of your attack. Do you have any thoughts about violence in our society, and what may need to happen as we continue to address it?


Ebony: The violence in our society has been a problem and will continue to be a problem, until we unite and take a stand against it! There has to be stiffer punishments. If criminals continue to get a smack on the wrist for the crimes they commit, then they won't be afraid to be a repeat offender. People tend to do things not thinking of the consequences of their actions nor the affect they're going to have on the lives of other people. And I believe if stiffer punishments are handed down this will give people a reason to think before they act.

Andrea: In addition to surviving a brutal attack, you earned your GED in your 20's and became a college student in your 30's. How will you book speak to dealing with hardship and adversity? Would you consider it to be motivational or autobiographical?

Ebony: Because I've been through so many different situations and I've overcome so much adversity and hardship, I speak on dealing with it throughout the book. We can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we deal with it. I'm a firm believer in that, and I show that in my book as well as speak on it, which is why I would have to say that my book is actually a combination of both. It's a motivational autobiography. LOL!


Andrea: Please share two missions of your nonprofit?

Ebony: The mission of my nonprofit organization is to share our stories in hopes to empower and uplift not only Survivors but regular people who may want to give up! Because I have survived so many different ordeals,  there are so many different types of people that I can help. I would like to open centers around the country that gives Survivors a place to go and just vent and have support from others who have been through similar situations. Also, when I came home from the hospital, there was no help for me financially. Therefore, I would like to be that help that survivors need after coming home to a life altering situation.

Andrea: When and where can your book be purchased?

Ebony: My book "Left For Dead" is now available on Kindle, Nook & Amazon and will be available on iBook and in all major bookstores the week of Feb. 10th, 2014.

Andrea: Please share the best way to keep up with you online.


Ebony:
Instagram/Twitter: @survival_story
Facebook Fan Page: Survival Story
Survival Story Tees: www.survivalstorytees.bigcartel.com