What do you think?
Rate this book
Noah's Schizophrenia: : A Mother's Search for Truth
One unremarkable night, Kartar Diamond’s remarkably talented 15-year old son walked into the living room and shouted, “every musician in L.A. is stealing my ideas!” and went back into his room. Minutes later he came back, belt in hand, and began whipping the couch and shouting with escalating paranoia. Little did his mother realize, the journey into hell had begun.
As her son crumbles before her eyes, Diamond powers through the endless confusion and ineffectiveness of the modern mental health care system and demands not only a diagnosis, but a way to treat her son and help him live the fullest expression of his life possible. The “system” – emergency rooms, police, counselors, psychiatrists, nurses, clinics, mental health administrators and homeless shelters - keep spitting him back out on the streets of Skid Row. The cycle goes on and on, spiraling downward toward one of two death or the slimmest of chances of finding safety.
Diamond’s clear-eyed story-telling brings wisdom and insider information on how to navigate the murky waters of public mental healthcare, its legal ramifications, as well strategies to cope with the chaos and pain of having a schizophrenic loved one.
“Told in Diamond’s raw and authentic voice, she demonstrates the indefatigable spirit of heroic motherhood…”
-Mary Widdifield and Elin Widdifield, M.A., author of Behind the The Story of Mental Illness as Told by Parents
“Kartar exposes the incompetence of many psychiatric and public safety professionals and Noah’s Schizophrenia should be required reading for students training to become mental healthcare providers.”
- Lynn Nanos, L.I.C.S.W. author of A Clinicians Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry
About the Author
Kartar Diamond has a long establish career as a classically trained feng sui consultant, author and educator. She has worked with thousands of clients and students in the area of Chinese metaphysics as well as having a background in yoga practices and meditation. Based in Southern California, Kartar volunteers as a family member presenter for law enforcement’s Crisis Intervention Training programs, designed to give police and sheriffs tools they need to better serve the mentally ill. She has also been a member of her local NAMI group and intends to use this book as a national advocacy tool to better the lives of those living with schizophrenia. She may be contacted through
www.noahsschizophrenia.com
As her son crumbles before her eyes, Diamond powers through the endless confusion and ineffectiveness of the modern mental health care system and demands not only a diagnosis, but a way to treat her son and help him live the fullest expression of his life possible. The “system” – emergency rooms, police, counselors, psychiatrists, nurses, clinics, mental health administrators and homeless shelters - keep spitting him back out on the streets of Skid Row. The cycle goes on and on, spiraling downward toward one of two death or the slimmest of chances of finding safety.
Diamond’s clear-eyed story-telling brings wisdom and insider information on how to navigate the murky waters of public mental healthcare, its legal ramifications, as well strategies to cope with the chaos and pain of having a schizophrenic loved one.
“Told in Diamond’s raw and authentic voice, she demonstrates the indefatigable spirit of heroic motherhood…”
-Mary Widdifield and Elin Widdifield, M.A., author of Behind the The Story of Mental Illness as Told by Parents
“Kartar exposes the incompetence of many psychiatric and public safety professionals and Noah’s Schizophrenia should be required reading for students training to become mental healthcare providers.”
- Lynn Nanos, L.I.C.S.W. author of A Clinicians Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry
About the Author
Kartar Diamond has a long establish career as a classically trained feng sui consultant, author and educator. She has worked with thousands of clients and students in the area of Chinese metaphysics as well as having a background in yoga practices and meditation. Based in Southern California, Kartar volunteers as a family member presenter for law enforcement’s Crisis Intervention Training programs, designed to give police and sheriffs tools they need to better serve the mentally ill. She has also been a member of her local NAMI group and intends to use this book as a national advocacy tool to better the lives of those living with schizophrenia. She may be contacted through
www.noahsschizophrenia.com
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 22, 2020
10 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 18, 2020
For parents facing a son or daughter’s diagnosis of schizophrenia, this book will be a useful, compassionate guide. Diamond has said that her goal in telling her story about Noah’s illness is to “educate and comfort” all those facing similar challenges, and I’m sure readers will feel her book delivers.
Growing up in southern California, Noah had always been an expressive child, smart at school and known for his musical abilities. Mother and son had always gotten along famously. However, Noah’s behavior changed drastically at age fifteen, and their lives were thrown into turmoil. Diamond recounts how difficult it was for her to understand her son’s illness. In 2006, few people talked about mental health screenings or knew how to get one. Even the specialists she consulted disagreed about diagnosis or treatment. Like many parents, she tried one silver bullet solution after another, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually accepting that Noah had schizophrenia and needed ongoing medication, Diamond was dismayed that her son lacked any rational understanding of his diagnosis. Instead, he wanted to self-medicate by chain-smoking cigarettes and buying whatever drugs he could find on the street. By his early twenties, Noah had two problems: schizophrenia and substance use. His life was at risk.
Thereafter begins his long odyssey from one Board and Care residence to another as his mother tries to find long-term lodging and a treatment program for him. Diamond brings us with her along the way, sharing her hopes and fears, describing one problem after another that must be surmounted. This is the challenging life of a mother whose adult child lives with a severe mental illness (SMI). What I especially appreciated were her educational asides, as when she explains how lax the standards are for Board and Care facilities or how certain laws work—often at cross-purposes for families trying to care for an ill loved one who lacks awareness of their plight. We understand why she chose to participate with LA police officers during their CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) trainings; she once witnessed how a savvy female police officer was able to convince her son to be calmly “5150’d” (placed under a 72-hour hold in a psychiatric hospital) while he was having a psychotic break. It takes empathy and special training to be able to do this successfully, and we’ve heard all too often about persons being jailed or killed in this same situation.
Diamond points out how strange and cruel certain laws can be, as for example the one that insists that a person must be either homicidal or suicidal before they can be placed in treatment at a hospital. No wonder there are so many 911 mental health crisis calls! If the ill person refuses or later says they are fine, no action will be taken at all—and this is often the most dangerous option for them. The only way around this is to gain legal guardianship (conservatorship in California parlance) in order to make decisions on their behalf. Diamond describes how this eventually occurred in her son’s case, and it is a harrowing experience.
I will let you read the book for yourself to discover what happens after Noah is taken to hospital long-term and placed under guardianship. Suffice it to say that the research Diamond does into possible programs for her son leads eventually (admittedly, with a bit of luck) to somewhere better. Still, we wonder: why does it have to be this hard and take so long? And what if your family doesn’t have the resources to put up such a prolonged fight for care?
This memoir will resonate with families looking for answers to one of life’s most difficult problems. The author tells us the most painful parts of her story, but also the valuable lessons she learned, lessons many of her readers can benefit from. Diamond’s personal testimony will also be useful in advocacy work with policy-makers. We can show them how our mental health care system is broken and also the ways it can be fixed.
Growing up in southern California, Noah had always been an expressive child, smart at school and known for his musical abilities. Mother and son had always gotten along famously. However, Noah’s behavior changed drastically at age fifteen, and their lives were thrown into turmoil. Diamond recounts how difficult it was for her to understand her son’s illness. In 2006, few people talked about mental health screenings or knew how to get one. Even the specialists she consulted disagreed about diagnosis or treatment. Like many parents, she tried one silver bullet solution after another, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually accepting that Noah had schizophrenia and needed ongoing medication, Diamond was dismayed that her son lacked any rational understanding of his diagnosis. Instead, he wanted to self-medicate by chain-smoking cigarettes and buying whatever drugs he could find on the street. By his early twenties, Noah had two problems: schizophrenia and substance use. His life was at risk.
Thereafter begins his long odyssey from one Board and Care residence to another as his mother tries to find long-term lodging and a treatment program for him. Diamond brings us with her along the way, sharing her hopes and fears, describing one problem after another that must be surmounted. This is the challenging life of a mother whose adult child lives with a severe mental illness (SMI). What I especially appreciated were her educational asides, as when she explains how lax the standards are for Board and Care facilities or how certain laws work—often at cross-purposes for families trying to care for an ill loved one who lacks awareness of their plight. We understand why she chose to participate with LA police officers during their CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) trainings; she once witnessed how a savvy female police officer was able to convince her son to be calmly “5150’d” (placed under a 72-hour hold in a psychiatric hospital) while he was having a psychotic break. It takes empathy and special training to be able to do this successfully, and we’ve heard all too often about persons being jailed or killed in this same situation.
Diamond points out how strange and cruel certain laws can be, as for example the one that insists that a person must be either homicidal or suicidal before they can be placed in treatment at a hospital. No wonder there are so many 911 mental health crisis calls! If the ill person refuses or later says they are fine, no action will be taken at all—and this is often the most dangerous option for them. The only way around this is to gain legal guardianship (conservatorship in California parlance) in order to make decisions on their behalf. Diamond describes how this eventually occurred in her son’s case, and it is a harrowing experience.
I will let you read the book for yourself to discover what happens after Noah is taken to hospital long-term and placed under guardianship. Suffice it to say that the research Diamond does into possible programs for her son leads eventually (admittedly, with a bit of luck) to somewhere better. Still, we wonder: why does it have to be this hard and take so long? And what if your family doesn’t have the resources to put up such a prolonged fight for care?
This memoir will resonate with families looking for answers to one of life’s most difficult problems. The author tells us the most painful parts of her story, but also the valuable lessons she learned, lessons many of her readers can benefit from. Diamond’s personal testimony will also be useful in advocacy work with policy-makers. We can show them how our mental health care system is broken and also the ways it can be fixed.
October 5, 2020
I received a complimentary copy.
A hard journey of truths and a real heart connecting story. Getting a glimpse of a realness that only this mom could share but others would easily relate to.
A hard journey of truths and a real heart connecting story. Getting a glimpse of a realness that only this mom could share but others would easily relate to.
May 27, 2021
This is a great insight into having a loved one suffer from schizophrenia. There is so much stigma attached to mental illness. This really humanizes the situation.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews