Hidden Valley Road

I was talking with a psychiatrist once and  he told me that, in his opinion, the worst mental illness to have is schizophrenia because medication doesn't help very much. The other mental illness have drugs to alleviate the symptoms. So when I read Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind Of An American Family by Robert Kolker, I knew I would be reading a tragic tale. The author got his information from Lindsey and Margaret who are the two youngest and only female offspring of Don and Mimi Galvin. Don and Mimi had twelve children. Twelve! Ten of the children were boys. Six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia and/or bi-polar disorder. The mental illness had an incredible impact on everyone in the family. Don worked in the Air Force and the family settled in Colorado. They took up falconry. The family went to church every Sunday with the boys wearing suits and ties and the girls wearing dresses. From the outside they looked like a successful family but that was far from the case. Most of the boys showed symptoms when they were 19 or 20. Some showed symptoms earlier. These children were born between 1945 and 1965. The stigma of mental illness, although bad now, was worse then. Psychiatrists didn't agree on treatment. Some experts blamed the mother. Mimi wasn't having any of that. She kept pushing doctors to do better to the extent that some felt she cared more for her sick children than her healthy children. The thing about schizophrenia is if the illness doesn't kill you the medication you take for it might. I have to applaud Lindsey and Margaret for being brave enough to tell this fascinating and tragic story of their family.