Epic Reads recently invited me to contribute to its author guest blog post series on mental health. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote, followed by a link to read the full article.
While Challenger Deep is inspired by my eldest son’s battle with mental illness, I’m no stranger to the struggle. My best friend in college was diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after graduation.
Brad was a genius. He received double degrees—one in computer science, the other in music—and when people speak of prodigies like Mozart, I still think of Brad. He could give Mozart a run for his money. We would write songs together—me the lyrics, he the music. We even recorded a couple of them. In fact, we wrote an entire musical that came very close to being produced by one of the major regional theaters that feeds onto Broadway. I was in awe of his talent, and was honored to consider myself his friend.
It was after graduation, however, that his life took a turn for the worse.
When we interact with people, there’s an unconscious assumption that the other person is coming from a fairly rational place. Even if there are disagreements, or differences of opinion, that assumption still holds—especially when it’s someone you know and care about…
