Mental Illness Killed Both my Father and Son by Lark Dean Galley When I made the decision to write about my son’s suicide, I had no intention of including my childhood stories in the book. How could they possibly have impacted his decision to end his life? Turns out, my childhood played a bigger role in my son’s suicide than I could ever have imagined. Starting the book with his death was like entering the play in the third scene. It was only after my friend encouraged me to write about the instability of my early years that I begin to see how my childhood impacted my parenting and in turn my son’s choices. As I examined my father’s life through adult eyes, I felt an even deeper understanding of his choices. My father’s mother spent her entire life with undiagnosed depression, something she inherited from her mother. Grandma Dean would experience bipolar mood swings which even she could not understand or explain. I can remember as a teenager coming into the room as she s...
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