Understanding Libby: A Mother's Journey with Childhood Paranoid Schizophrenia (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780985960155)

Award-winning author Charity Marie was a successful children's author, personal injury Paralegal, Realtor, and mother of two special-needs children. All of that shattered in December 2017 after rushing her eleven-year-old daughter, Liberty, to a local ER due to visual hallucinations. After more than a decade of bizarre behavior, this one event began an ongoing battle for a diagnosis and effective treatment of Liberty's early-onset paranoid schizophrenia.

Understanding Libby is an in-depth, unflinching, and raw look at the effects of schizophrenia on a victim and her family. The first book in the three-book series is meant to be a from-the-trenches example for parents, families, caregivers, and mental health providers of children suffering from mental illness. Never before has such an ambitious attempt been made to shine a light into the dark world of schizophrenia. Book 1 is a series of blog posts written over one year as Charity's first-person account of her and her daughter's experiences seeking treatment for a series of baffling and complex mental health symptoms as Liberty spends time in and out of mental health treatment facilities. It also contains resources and information that will help parents and families with similar struggles, regardless of the mental illness. Join Charity as she maneuvers through an increasingly complex world of medical treatment, mental health facilities, insurance denials, disability, special education, and governmental bureaucracy at every turn, while trying to stay positive, find answers, and keep her daughter from killing herself or losing her mind.