Her mother’s hallucinations created some uncomfortable moments (Linda Schoonover)

Linda Schoonover is thankful that her mother, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, is free of most hallucinations and delusions. However until her nineties, her mother’s hallucinations were “normal” symptoms.

Schoonover has been her mother’s caretaker for the last forty years. “Mom is a very kind person, however,when she relapses, which, until her later years was about every three months, she would hear and see things that weren’t there.” According to Schoonover, those hallucinations made her mother fearful that someone was going to kill her or her daughter.

Schoonover recounts some of her experiences in her best selling memoir, An Illusion of Normal. Her mother suffered from the illness for years before the author was born, so until recently, she had never known a time when her mother didn’t experience hallucinations. In her memoir, Schoonover shares a time when her mother was convinced there was someone across the street who was going to kill her after Schoonover left for school. Schoonover said her mother got dressed, walked to the bus stop, and hopped on the bus with her.

“All of a sudden, I was horrified. Everyone wanted to know why my mother was on the bus. I just stared straight ahead. What was I going to say to a bus full of kids?” Her mother went into the author’s classroom and sat down in the seat behind hers. “Mom was in a spell and not particularly sensitive to what was going on. Then my teacher pulled me aside and asked why my mother was in class. I had never told anyone about my mother and had never heard the term mental illness. I told her I thought Mom was sick in the head.”

Her teacher then asked her what she should do. “Being only eight, no one had prepared me for the question or the experience. After a few seconds that seemed like hours of trying to think of a way to answer, I suggested she take her to first aid. ”After an organization developed a course called Mental Health First Aid, a guide for how to respond to someone who is actively dealing with issues related to their mental illness, she realizes her guess wasn’t too far off after all.

Schoonover said the typical symptoms of her mother’s serious mental illness are, at 95, almost gone, replaced by another issue – short and long term memory loss.

“She loves to learn and be involved. She hates being bored.” According to Schoonover, it has been hard to find a Medicaid facility that can keep her mother busy enough. “Medicaid facilities fall short in areas of activities and nursing care for residents. ”At the last assistant living facility she lived in, her mother worked every day in their front office practicing her shorthand and making sure guests signed in properly. “But now she suffers from macular degeneration which prevents her from seeing clearly enough to read or take shorthand,”Schoonover said.

“I feel so bad for her because she was tormented by her illness for so long and now when she is finally free from those issues, there are few if any facilities that allow her to enjoy whatever time she has left.” According to Schoonover, her mother is stuck in her room most days without even a chance to go outside except for times when Schoonover and her husband come and interrupt the monotonous hum of the television and take her out to dinner.

“I have been in assisted living facilities where there are activities all the time, but those usually cost thousands of dollars of month. For those living on social security and Medicaid, there are few facilities that provide people with the care they need for a good quality of life.’

Schoonover ‘s mother fell ill during World War II immediately after she moved to Boston on a college scholarship and the marriage to her father who was stationed on a Navy destroyer. According to Schoonover, in 1942, when her mother initially became ill, doctors knew little about mental illness. “The only research on mental illness during World War II were from psychiatrists who were part of the Hitler regime. They conducted experiments and killed thousands who were suffering from mental and physical disabilities.”

Schoonover, who also speaks about mental illness as well as adverse childhood experiences, says she hopes to change the way the world views mental illness through books about her life. An Illusion of Normal has ranked number one in Amazon’s Kindle categories of Mental Illness, Family, Faith, and Women and has ranked in Amazon’s top fifty women memoirs for months. Schoonover’s memoir, subtitled A True Story of a Child’s Survival in a Home Tormented by Mental Illness, is a penetrating and honest story of how mental illness impacts a family, but also the author’s personal story of faith which gave her the strength and resilience to endure reoccurring childhood trauma and abuse, and the drive to thrive. For more information go to www.LindaSchoonover.com or www.rockyroadpublishing.com.

About Linda Schoonover

Schoonover’s memoir, subtitled A True Story of a Child’s Survival in a Home Tormented by Mental Illness, is a penetrating and honest story of how mental illness impacts a family, but also the author’s personal story of faith which gave her the strength and resilience to endure reoccurring childhood trauma and abuse, and the drive to thrive. For more information go to https://www.LindaSchoonover.com or https://www.rockyroadpublishing.com.