BOOK REVIEW –

May 28, 2021- Tim had wrestled in high school at 270 pounds, and at 23, he was still gigantic, living at home, sleeping through the days and spending nights in the basement lifting weights while his psychosis was slowly dominating him. He saw coins floating before his eyes. He tossed salt on his parents as they slept. And he struggled, in his mind quite literally, with devils he communicated with via Google. On the morning of his mother’s death, he warned her that those devils were winning. “Something bad is going to happen,” he told her in the kitchen. “They are going to come for me. If something looks like a suicide, just know that I love you.” The lines between suicide and homicide blurred in Tim’s mind. In the Granata home, things had not been fine for a very long time. Both parents were trained as emergency room doctors, but even they were stymied — trapped — by the horror-show suite of nonchoices schizophrenia presents. Sufferers can’t perceive how sick they are, nor can they be hospitalized against their will, unless they present a danger to themselves or others. So many don’t seek help, and absent a trip to the E.R. or a 911 call, loved ones have no way to obtain it for them.

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