Anne, a shy sickly child tells her story starting in the first grade in school and following through until her eightieth year. Her part of the saga was especially frightful and grave as she was pointed out by her mother as being possessed because of her childhood sensitiveness to extrasensory perception stimuli. She felt she was singled out unfairly and devoted her entire life in trying to make her mother love her. Finally, in her old age believes her mother was only trying to make life easier and more pleasant for her sister Cortley. As the years went by it was discovered Cortley inherited their father's bipolar condition.

Because of the wrathful behavior of the bipolar father, the family was in constant upheaval and turmoil. His highs and lows alternated in spurts.

This story happened in the '30's. The depression had a solid lock on the country and very few families escaped it.

The illness the father suffered was also called schizophrenia and insanity. The asylums and penitentiaries were filled with crazy people. The poor souls had no say in their condition but were told they were a threat to society, to their own lives and to family, therefore, they must locked up. This father was one such person. He was jailed and banished from family and home.

There were nine children in the family and each had a role to play to carry the story forward. They all had an unpleasant childhood and some were plagued with unhappiness in later life.

Just of late has there been a change in attitude concerning these patients. For the most part, they are being correctly diagnosed and are given the proper medication and treatment.

The dreaded disease has shown up in grandchildren, offspring of Anne's brothers and sister.

In conclusion, perhaps the tyrannical episodes and outbursts of the father were SCREAMS for help. No one listened or understood his HELL ON EARTH!

Anne, a shy sickly child tells her story starting in the first grade in school and following through until her eightieth year. Her part of the saga was especially frightful and grave as she was pointed out by her mother as being possessed because of her childhood sensitiveness to extrasensory perception stimuli. She felt she was singled out unfairly and devoted her entire life in trying to make her mother love her. Finally, in her old age believes her mother was only trying to make life easier and more pleasant for her sister Cortley. As the years went by it was discovered Cortley inherited their father's bipolar condition.

Because of the wrathful behavior of the bipolar father, the family was in constant upheaval and turmoil. His highs and lows alternated in spurts.

This story happened in the '30's. The depression had a solid lock on the country and very few families escaped it.

The illness the father suffered was also called schizophrenia and insanity. The asylums and penitentiaries were filled with crazy people. The poor souls had no say in their condition but were told they were a threat to society, to their own lives and to family, therefore, they must locked up. This father was one such person. He was jailed and banished from family and home.

There were nine children in the family and each had a role to play to carry the story forward. They all had an unpleasant childhood and some were plagued with unhappiness in later life.

Just of late has there been a change in attitude concerning these patients. For the most part, they are being correctly diagnosed and are given the proper medication and treatment.

The dreaded disease has shown up in grandchildren, offspring of Anne's brothers and sister.

In conclusion, perhaps the tyrannical episodes and outbursts of the father were SCREAMS for help. No one listened or understood his HELL ON EARTH!

I CAN´T MAKE IT O.K.!  A STORY OF DEPRESSION, MARRIAGE, AND DISCOVERY is about the destruction that uncontrolled depression unleashes within families.  This is a true story about the author’s struggle to help manage his wife’s depression and his quest to understand its cause.  Examined are possible genetic connections that might link their children to an increased sensitivity to depressive illness and possible origins from his wife’s traumatic and dysfunctional childhood.  Whatever the cause, this illness tore their family apart as they struggled to hold together their lives and sanity as they searched for hope.  Hope is always needed, and, once gone, there is only despair to be endured--the everyday reality for families overwhelmed by depressive illness.  While the intent of this story is not to condemn all medical treatment or all therapists, it is critical of the over use of the medical model with the identified individual patient to the exclusion of family, who are also in need of help.  It is meant as an awakening for those who are in similar situations and an encouragement to demand from your community mental health service providers the help everyone needs.  I believe this story will resonate with experiences of other families caught in the crossfire of competing needs of the patient, psychiatrists, psychologists, and self.  Lastly, this story is for my adult children to increase their understanding and comprehension of what happened to our family during their childhood. A forward by Thomas C. Kneavel, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, addresses the tragic impact of depression on effected families. The author´s email is ron.hamlen@usa.dupont.com

I CAN´T MAKE IT O.K.!  A STORY OF DEPRESSION, MARRIAGE, AND DISCOVERY is about the destruction that uncontrolled depression unleashes within families.  This is a true story about the author’s struggle to help manage his wife’s depression and his quest to understand its cause.  Examined are possible genetic connections that might link their children to an increased sensitivity to depressive illness and possible origins from his wife’s traumatic and dysfunctional childhood.  Whatever the cause, this illness tore their family apart as they struggled to hold together their lives and sanity as they searched for hope.  Hope is always needed, and, once gone, there is only despair to be endured--the everyday reality for families overwhelmed by depressive illness.  While the intent of this story is not to condemn all medical treatment or all therapists, it is critical of the over use of the medical model with the identified individual patient to the exclusion of family, who are also in need of help.  It is meant as an awakening for those who are in similar situations and an encouragement to demand from your community mental health service providers the help everyone needs.  I believe this story will resonate with experiences of other families caught in the crossfire of competing needs of the patient, psychiatrists, psychologists, and self.  Lastly, this story is for my adult children to increase their understanding and comprehension of what happened to our family during their childhood. A forward by Thomas C. Kneavel, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, addresses the tragic impact of depression on effected families. The author´s email is ron.hamlen@usa.dupont.com