Braving the Clouds

By Mary

The book Braving the Clouds is the journey of a mother whose son suffers from schizophrenia. A journey that started suddenly, as though out of the blue, but its a journey that seems to see no end. The agonizing pain, the heart-wrenching moments, the trials, and the tribulations of a mother who has no option but to be a witness to this harrowing mental disorder of her son. The denial and subsequently the acceptance. Acceptance of an illness that is treatable but not curable. Acceptance that brings in its tow the various paths she treads upon to see her son free enough from this illness, to be able to lead a normal life. Acceptance which imparts to her the strength and the tenacity to somehow, anyhow break the shackles of this illness around her son.
The journey, no matter how agonizing or difficult has not been able to break the hope she clings onto for her son.
It is not her intention to give a detailed account of Schizophrenia since a lot of material is available on the Internet regarding this illness. She wants to share her experiences which she has gathered en route, with those in a similar situation like hers. If shes able to touch the life of even one person through her book, the purpose of writing this book will be achieved.
Touching other lives is one of the many things of which life is all about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482857344

Mary

Mary and Melissa Lemke are identical twin sisters from New Hampshire who married identical twin brothers from upper Michigan. They are former critical care nurses who now enjoy their roles as stay-at-home wives and homeschooling mothers. They feel blessed to be able to share encouraging words with others.

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Copyright © 2015 by Mary.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

The Gathering of the Clouds

The Day She Saw Death Looking Her in the Face

A Mother’s Pain***Her Pain

The Tertiary Care Hospital

The Unexplainable Bonding

Her Son

The Proposal***The Rehabilitation Centre

Her Son at the Rehabilitation Centre

Discharge from the Rehabilitation Centre

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Braving the Clouds

DEDICATED

TO THE GOOD OF MANKIND

So locked up in their world, in their world of imaginations, in their world of hallucinations, in their world of voices, a world where reality ceases to exist and the imaginary world takes over to become their world of reality. Schizophrenia, the worse form of mental illness, an illness which is treatable but not curable. An illness which overshadows the entire life of the person, taking that person through a gamut of emotions, of denial and pain.

THE GATHERING OF THE CLOUDS

Her son, barely 24 years of age then, a tall handsome lad and as intelligent, loving and caring towards every one. He had completed his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from a reputed Institute in a Metro in the year 2004. Little did any of them fathom what lay ahead for them. Clouds which would over-shadow their lives, sometimes dispersing to show a ray of hope and then as quickly making the sky over-cast and dark.

How a deficient level of the chemical ‘Dopamine’ in the brain can play havoc with an individual’s life, causing Schizophrenia? A deficiency which cannot be measured and hence cannot be ascertained. An experiment with different medicines or combinations of medicines to see which brings forth the best results. An extremely slow process by way of prognosis, requiring a great deal of patience and perseverance.

The fateful year 2006, and her son’s first admission into the Psychiatric Ward of the biggest local hospital, where he had to be taken forcibly being in the grips of a delusion because his delusion made him aggressive and violent and his food in-take dwindled to nothing. The delusion centred around a certain well known ‘Baba’ (A self proclaimed Saint) who had killed all his loved ones and the loved ones were mere impostors because this so called ‘Baba’ had taken their forms and was masquerading around him in their forms. The Psychiatric Ward was a mere semblance of one with an extremely poor infra-structure. The only redeeming feature was a senior Doctor, who