This is the story of a woman's struggle with mental illness through which she finds spiritual meaning and, ultimately, God. As a person who has experience severe psychiatric illness and landed on her feet, Marcia A. Murphy offers a unique first-person perspective. She is qualified to tell what such illness is like, its symptoms, stigmatization, hospitalizations, and daily life. Ms. Murphy takes you into her world and provides insights into the spiritual meaning of her illness. Her story gives desperately needed hope to others who are ill, their families, psychiatric professionals, as well as to those who know someone who is ill. Experts in the field from Harvard, Yale, Boston University, the University of Iowa and elsewhere have endorsed this memoir.

WHAT THE BOOK OFFERS: General Readers will learn what it is like to experience mental illness and gain compassion for those with such illness. Those with mental illness may be encouraged and given hope. Those who treat persons with such illness will gain appreciation of what recovery means and how it may be achieved. ""Ms. Murphy has done a terrific job in developing a book with appeal to and relevance for a potentially wide range of readers and a wide audience, i.e., readers who have experience psychiatric ailments first hand, family members, but also mental health clinicians and trainees, as well as members of the wider public interested in personal stories and in understanding more about the experience of psychiatric disorders. Ms.

Murphy has done a great job in connecting the magnetism of a personal story to multiple larger themes."" James E. Sabin, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University Marcia A. Murphy has published articles, essays, and works of creative nonfiction in professional psychiatric journals, five anthologies, and newspapers. She resides in Iowa City, Iowa.