New Book Brings Mental Illness to the Forefront

(PRWEB) June 7, 2008 -- Outskirts Press author Two Lenz gives readers a first-hand look at the American mental health care system in Walking Through Walls: Overcoming the Barriers of Serious Mental Illness. In 39 years of hospitalizations, Lenz finds the inner strength to make it through, and shares her hope--and insights into the country's treatment system--in this remarkable book.

May 12, Denver, CO and Las Vegas, NV Research shows mental illness troubles an estimated 26.2 percent of Americans--6 percent severely--and is blamed as the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada among those ages 15-44. But those staggering numbers don't make it any less lonely for people who travel the poorly understood roads of the American mental health system.

Now, one woman is seeking to increase awareness of mental health suffering and give hope to those affected by telling the remarkable story of her 39-year journey through a slew of hospitalizations, diagnoses and medications.

Walking Through Walls: Overcoming the Barriers of Serious Mental Illness (Outskirts Press), by writer Two Lenz, weaves autobiographical narrative with a historical look at our understanding of mental health and problems in modern treatment. Two Lenz (not a pseudonym) was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1970s, after suffering from symptoms of mental illness since childhood. Over the years, she would be hospitalized 25 times, undergo a host of treatments and be diagnosed incorrectly until doctors finally found her to be suffering from schizoaffective disorder.

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