I am beyond excited to announce that Her Lost Year: A Story of Hope and a Vision for Optimizing Children’s Mental Health is done and available in stores all over the Internet.
I started writing this book over three years ago, just months after my daughter Rebecka was discharged from the eating disorder program at the Mayo Clinic for the last time.
Somehow I knew, when I started writing, that Rebecka was fully recovered. It was safe to start processing what had happened to our family during her lost year. It was therapeutic and infuriating all at once to look back over the days and weeks and months of darkness.
I saw patterns I couldn’t see while in the midst of it all. I read everything I could get my hands on related to psychiatric drugs, mental health, social and emotional learning, and everything in between. The more I read and learned, the easier it was to make sense of our experience—and figure out where to go from here.
I finished the first draft close to a year ago. On June 23, 2014, I sent it out to the first readers. My husband, Todd. My sister, Priscilla. My sister-in-law Caroline. Neighbors. Friends. And even a stranger. They provided gentle, constructive feedback.
The last 6+ months have seen a successful Kickstarter campaign, one round of content editing, one round of copy editing, revisions, cover design, interior design, e-book design, and proofing. And proofing again. And again.
I had no idea how much work was yet to come when I typed that final sentence at 7:41 a.m. on a fine June morning last year—still in my PJs. My first thought when I finished the first draft was, I should shower. (I almost made it to the office on time…)
Yes, it’s been hard work, but the reward that arrived at my doorstep late last week (three boxes of books) made it all worth it. The book is beautiful inside and out. I can’t wait to find out what you think about it.
How You Can Help
Nilofer Merchant has written a most amazing blog post about how to support an author. I’ll give my summarized version here:
- Buy the book. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Kobo, and Dragonfly Books.
- Write a review. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. The more reviews a book has, the better.
- Share on social media. I don’t think I need to explain why this is helpful.
- Take action for mental health. Mostly, I’m interested in readers implementing some of the ideas put forth in this book. It’s time.
Thanks for reading.
Congratulations on such a personal and important topic!
Thanks Marcia!
I just saw your article on Mad in America and realised that I wasn’t the only mother with a story like that. My own daughter’s experience seems to reflect yours so I’ve ordered your book. My daughter’s problems started at age 14 and she is now 18 and preparing to go to college in September. I too struggled with the insistence on medications for depression which were obviously making my daughter’s condition worse – several times I nearly lost her through their ‘adverse effects’ but the ‘professionals’ couldn’t see why she was getting worse. Also, my requests to look into her nutritional status following months of anorexia nervosa were ignored, despite my research showing that many nutritional deficiencies can manifest with the mental symptoms she had. She finally realised for herself that she had to try and heal herself and not rely on the ‘system’ and hopefully the whole experience will help her in her future quest to help others as she starts her training in Psychology.
Thanks for connecting—and for ordering our book! Our stories do sound very similar, and I am so glad to hear that your daughter was able to pull through. Others are not so lucky. Awesome that she’s planning to study psychology. She’ll be a tremendous asset to the profession. Take care!