Henry's Demons
Living with Schizophrenia, a Father and Son's Story
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
On a cold February day two months after his 20th birthday, Henry Cockburn waded into the Newhaven estuary outside Brighton and tried to swim across, almost drowning in the process. The trees, he said, had told him to do it.
Nearly halfway around the world, in Kabul, Afghanistan, journalist Patrick Cockburn learned that Henry, his son, had been admitted to a hospital mental ward and appeared to be suffering a mental breakdown. Ten days later, Henry was officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Thus begins Patrick and Henry's extraordinary account of Henry's steep descent into mental illness and of Patrick's journey towards understanding the changes it has wrought.
With remarkable candour, Patrick writes of the seven years since, years Henry has spent almost entirely in mental hospitals. Schizophrenics are at high risk for suicide, and Patrick and his wife live in constant fear for Henry's life. Patrick also provides a fascinating glimpse into the conflicted history of schizophrenia's diagnosis and treatment and shows how little we still know about this debilitating condition.
The book also includes Henry's own account of his experiences. In these raw and eerily beautiful chapters written from the hospital, he tells of the visions and voices that urge him on and of the sense that he has discovered something magical and profound.
Together, Patrick's and Henry's stories create one of the most nuanced and revealing portraits of mental illness ever written, and a stirring memoir of family, parenthood, and the courage it takes to persevere and emerge, at last, whole.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sensitive story of a family's battle with schizophrenia looks at the ignorance and stigma that often accompany any mention of mental illness. When Cockburn, a foreign correspondent for the Independent on assignment in Afghanistan, learns his 20-year-old son, Henry, has been institutionalized after trying to drown himself, he tries to understand why his son has had a mental breakdown. The Cockburns, a tightly knit family, are severely tested by the pressures of a loved one undone by his mind and locked away for seven years in a mental hospital. Told in alternate views, both father and son write candidly of the illness, medications, and numerous hospitalizations, along with harrowing descriptions of visions and voices. This straightforward, unsentimental book, is a bold plea for more research and cutting-edge therapies to combat mental illness.
Customer Reviews
Fantastic book
Amazing insight into such a personal journey through eyes of Henry himself and his devoted family.. Read the book in two days, was hard to put down. Truly inspirational.
Henry's Demons
An incredible story. The chapters written by Henry himself give a rare and intimate insight into the mesmerising and at times surreal thoughts and visions of a Schizophrenic. I feel I have learned a great deal from this book - not only how the illness strikes but the toll it takes on family and friends, the overall lack of adequate provision and support in the UK and the general misunderstanding of mental disorders. This is a true story, set primarily in Canterbury where I myself was born, I feel I have followed you from Castle Street, to Sandwich, to the Stour - I would like to wish Henry and his family all the very best for their future. With love.