Blinded by Hope: One Mother's Journey Through Her Son's Bipolar Illness and Addiction (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781631521256)

One day a teenage boy gets on his bike and rides forty miles up California's Pacific Coast Highway to avoid causing an earthquake he fears will endanger his mother and sister. But the quake he is experiencing is not coming from beneath the earth; it's the onset of bipolar illness.
Blinded by Hope describes what it's like to have an unusually bright, creative child--and then to have that child suddenly be hit with an illness that defies description and cure. Over the years, McGuire attributes her son's lost jobs, broken relationships, legal troubles, and periodic hospitalizations to the manic phase of his illness, denying the severity of his growing drug use--but ultimately, she has to face her own addiction to rescuing him, and to forge a path for herself toward acceptance, resilience, and love. A wakeup call about the epidemic of mental illness, substance abuse, and mass incarceration in our society, Blinded by Hope shines a light on the shadow of family dynamics that shame, ignorance, and stigma rarely let the public see, and asks the question: How does a mother cope when love is not enough?

Author: Meg McGuire
ISBN-10: 163152125X
ISBN-13: 9781631521256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Language: English
Published: 06/06/2017
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.40w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001