LOSING DAD, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family's Search for Hope by Amanda LaPera

Silver award recipient of IBPA's prestigious Benjamin Franklin book award in the category of psychology, Losing Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family's Search for Hope is the compelling true story of a family's struggle with the sudden onset of their father’s severe mental illness after his fifty-third birthday. Lacking an understanding of his condition, Joseph’s family is left to deal with his upsetting transformation, which led him across four continents and thirty countries as a self-proclaimed prophet-of-God, and his subsequent homelessness. The perspectives of his three children, his spouse, and his own distorted reality combine to offer readers a glimpse of a world that will either feel hauntingly familiar or dramatically eye-opening.

With so many recent tragedies involving individuals with untreated severe mental illness, families, doctors, and police are often blamed for not doing enough. The solution, however, is rarely simple. Losing Dad poignantly shows the effects of inadequate treatment for those living with a severe mental illness in America. Losing Dad not only features Joseph's harrowing -- and still ongoing -- flight from reality, but also valuable information about severe mental illness, a crippling disease that affects 1 in 17 people.

In the engaging and informative Foreword written by Xavier Amador,Ph.D., founder of the LEAP Institute and author of “I am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!” (Vida Press 2012), Joseph’s mysterious condition “anosognosia” (a condition in which a person who suffers from a certain disability is unaware of the existence of that disability) is examined in greater detail.

Bonus Material: Readers will also find in “Losing Dad” a helpful list of resources, a discussion of current U.S. mental health laws, exclusive in-depth interviews with several members of Joseph’s family, and discussion questions that are ideal for book clubs and reading circles.

A portion of author’s proceeds from sales of Losing Dad will go to NAMI-OC, an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a nonprofit dedicated to improving lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.

Praise for the Book:

Ellen Eldridge from Target Audience Magazine writes,"Reading LaPera's personal family drama feels like sharing a cup of cocoa with a friend you wish you could console."

Read the Introduction by clicking here.

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