Family Archives - KARTAR DIAMOND

Noah Update by Kartar Diamond

In the span of one week, I re-read my own book, Noah’s Schizophrenia, after not reading it in five years. In 2020, the book was published and I went on a series of virtual book presentations through Zoom during the COVID lockdown. In the same week, I was contacted through a mutual friend, by a husband and wife regarding their mentally ill son. This family has experienced many stereotypical setbacks, like the ones I mentioned in Noah’s Schizophrenia. They wished to speak with [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2025-07-21T20:55:46+00:00July 21, 2025|Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

A Mother Is Only As Happy As Her Saddest Child by Kartar Diamond

The notion that “a mother is only as happy as her saddest child” is a saying that some have heard, and surprisingly some have grossly misinterpreted. I do have a friend who I don’t speak to often, but when we do, she always asks me how my son is doing. She then often repeats this famous quote to me. What does it actually mean? And is it really universally true? From my understanding, this saying about a mother only being as happy as [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2023-05-23T21:23:12+00:00May 23, 2023|Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

When Your Parent is Mentally Ill by Kartar Diamond

Much has been written about struggling parents when they have a child or an adult son or daughter who is mentally ill. But what about the reversal, when it is the mother or father who has a brain illness? As a once active member of a local NAMI Family Support group, the vast majority of attendees were mothers, concerned about their offspring, and the occasional father in attendance. Less often, a young adult would show up for the meeting, stressed and overwhelmed with [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2022-07-28T15:51:39+00:00July 28, 2022|Advocacy, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

Snap Out Of It by Kartar Diamond

You don’t hear a lot of young people use the expression, “snap out of it,” but I heard those words on TV and in movies regularly while growing up. It’s a response to a person who may be in a funk, another dated term, to describe a depressed state. The individual who says “snap out of it,” is usually annoyed or exasperated because they don’t understand what the troubled person is actually experiencing or the seriousness of their dysfunction. A stereotypical example of [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2022-03-27T22:11:08+00:00March 27, 2022|Advocacy, Book Reviews, Family|0 Comments

Adolescents with Mental Illness by Kartar Diamond

These days it seems like more kids are struggling with mental health issues. Perhaps we are just more willing to talk about it openly in society, with mental illness is a little less stigmatized than it used to be decades ago. However, there is a wide spectrum and ranges in severity when it comes to mental illness. When mental illness emerges in teenagers, the odd behaviors can sometimes be written off as just caused by teenage hormones. General anxiety and personality disorders can [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2021-05-16T14:51:28+00:00March 23, 2021|Family, Mental Illness, Treatment|0 Comments

Speaking of Britney Spears and Mental Health by Kartar Diamond

The long-standing conservatorship over Britney Spears has been in the News lately and her ardent fans assume it is an injustice against her civil liberties. The general public does not know all the details of her conservatorship or even her mental health diagnosis. What is most obvious, is that Britney Spears is not a typical conservatee within the mental healthcare system. Whatever happens with her case should not be construed as a blueprint for others who need to be conserved or those disputing [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2021-05-16T14:59:48+00:00March 15, 2021|Advocacy, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

The Schizophrenogenic Mother by Kartar Diamond

What is the “schizo-phreno-genic” mother? This is a term that was used many decades ago to describe the personality disorder, attitude and detrimental actions of the mother who produced a child with schizophrenia. Supposedly, this was a cold, unaffectionate mother, who also micro-managed her child and the result somehow blamed for the severe mental illness in her offspring. This notion about how and why people develop schizophrenia was eventually retired since it was proven not to be true. It caused needless harm within [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2021-05-16T15:03:53+00:00March 7, 2021|Advocacy, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

Suspended Sentence: A Memoir by Janice Morgan

What Morgan’s book manages to do, is tell a very personal, compelling story about her relationship with her son, while at the same time giving the reader a glimpse into what it is like to have a mentally ill loved one, in this case her son Dylan, and to have everything about the illness affect everything else in your life. Once her son’s mental illness emerges, and at a heart-breaking young age, thus begins the journey, the Holy Grail, of trying to understand [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2021-05-16T15:07:48+00:00February 20, 2021|Book Reviews, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

Siblings of Those With Mental Illness by Kartar Diamond

Each family member has a unique relationship with their loved one who has mental illness. When I was frequently attending NAMI Family Support meetings, the vast majority of people in attendance were mothers. Second to that we would see fathers and once in a blue moon a person would attend who was struggling with a mentally ill parent. This is always very sad to witness, when the parent-child roles are reversed, but of course this also happens with elderly parents and their grown [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2021-01-28T20:35:17+00:00January 28, 2021|Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments

Ben Behind His Voices: One Family’s Journey From the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope

Ben Behind His Voices: One Family’s Journey From the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope By Randye Kaye This book was published in 2011, but unfortunately it is what the literary world calls an “evergreen.” This means the information in it is always timely and is not outdated. The unfortunate part includes the fact that so many families, like Randye Kaye and her son, continue to suffer the pervasive emotional trauma and societal stigma for having serious mental illness. Worse yet, there is still [...]

By Kartar Diamond|2020-12-19T19:36:10+00:00December 19, 2020|Book Reviews, Family, Mental Illness|0 Comments