Working in the mental health field has changed my views on a lot of things mainly how I view people with mental health illness. It has also impacted how I treat people and just overall how I move but I recently read a book that has also impacted me. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker is a book on the Galvin family. The Galvin family was a family of 12 children in which there were 10 boys and 2 girls. Don and Mimi were the moms of these kids and the book took us through the life of an American Family and how much mental health mainly schizophrenia affected them.
Schizophrenia was passed down from kid to kid and the only ones not affected were 4 out of the 10 boys and the 2 girls. This book took us through the lives of all the kids when they were younger and everything they went through. It also took us through the lives of the parents Mimi and Don and their upbringing to them raising the children. The family moved around a lot but finally settled in Hidden Valley Road in Colorado Springs where they were raised. The story takes us through the battles the kids faced while growing up and going through their moments of mental health in which they would act in ways they didn’t understand or do things like one brother trying to jump in a fire, another assaulting both little sisters and the numerous fights between normal teenage siblings.
One thing this book does that is really great is we are able to see how far the family came and even though some of them died like a murder suicide with a spouse, natural causes or through the medications they were taken we are able to get a feel of their personal lives. Schizophrenia affected this family a lot and in most times the boys who had it may have acted in ways which seemed abnormal and felt they had no control over but they didn’t use it as an excuse. A lot of the boys did their best to live normal lives in the best way they could. Mimi the mother did not use the Illness to see her kids a different way and still loved them no matter what and kept them together as best as she could. Nobody is perfect and there were some things she kept under wraps but everything done was out of love for her kids and her strength is what kept them going.
This book made me really interested in learning about the Galvin family and the book was pushed by the 2 sisters who were unaffected with schizophrenia Lindsay and Margaret. Both sisters were instrumental in getting the story of the family told and the in and outs of their medical history. Schizophrenia has not been talked about as much as other mental health Illnesses and I think the book was key in bringing attention to it.
Even in the 50/60s when this happened, they were able to do some research with the finally to figure out if it was passed down through their genes or others. Even though they didn't have the technology back then and the amount of research freedom today, I think the Galvin family has been instrumental and putting this story out there has had an impact which they would have never thought. Oprah Winfrey added this book to her list of best reads. Here is a link to checkout the book and learn more about the Galvin family.
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