Schizophrenia:
Three Moms in the Trenches 

Here to Help

Mental health resources for supporting mental health and well-being in yourself and in others (including children). 

NAMI

(National Alliance on Mental Illness) 

The nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization. I particularly recommend the article “When Your Parents Have Mental Illness: Healing Childhood Trauma.” 

Parenting Well

A website for parents with mental illness with tips, tools, and other resources. 

COPMI

Children of Parents with a Mental Illness 

An organization promoting better outcomes for children and families where a parent experiences mental illness .

The Love and Logic Institute

An institute dedicated to providing practical tools and techniques that help adults achieve respectful, healthy relationships with their children. 

The Recovery Village at Cherry Hill

The Recovery Village delivers comprehensive addiction treatment services for adults struggling with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders.

The Recovery Village

Mental Health First Aid for Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

I Am Still Your Child

A documentary film about children of parents with mental illness. 

I Know This Much Is True

Wally Lamb's #1 New York Times Bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection. Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his subdued life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. Dominick is forced to care for his brother as well as confront dark secrets and pain he has buried deep within himself—a journey of the soul that takes him beyond his blue-collar New England town to Sicily’s Mount Etna, the birthplace of his grandfather and namesake. Coming to terms with his life and lineage, Dominick struggles to find forgiveness and finally rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his troubled twin.

Also a six-episode limited drama series on HBOMax

A tour-de-force performance from three-time Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo leads this family saga, which follows the parallel lives of identical twin brothers in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness set against the backdrop of 20th-century America.

I'm Not Alone: A Teen's Guide to Living with a Parent Who Has a Mental Illness

An interactive workbook written by daughter/mother, psychologist/teacher team (Dr Michelle Sherman and DeAnne Sherman) that offers hope, reflection activities, skills, and information for teens whose parent lives with bipolar disorder, depression, or schizophrenia.

Finding My Way: A Teen's Guide to Living with a Parent Who Has Experienced Trauma

A workbook written by daughter/mother, psychologist/teacher team (Dr Michelle Sherman and DeAnne Sherman) for teens whose parent has experienced trauma or has PTSD, offering interactive activities, empowerment, skills, and facts presented in a teen-friendly format

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, explores innovative treatments that offer new paths to trauma recovery. 

Unglued: A Bipolar Love Story 

A memoir by Jeffrey Zuckerman about how a husband becomes a caregiver with his wife’s bipolar diagnosis and learns to manage his own self-care, too. 

5 Steps to Helping a Loved One with Mental Illness: Bringing Awareness and Support to Families and the Community 

A book by L. Marie and Erick Nixon created to help break the stigma associated with mental illness and bring families together for healing, comfort, and support. 

Wishing Wellness: A Workbook for Children of Parents with Mental Illness

A workbook by Lisa Anne Clarke and illustrated by Bonnie Matthews packed with information, interactive questions, and fun activities for children whose parents suffer from a serious mental illness.

Crazy Was All I Ever Knew: The Impact of Maternal Mental Illness on Kids

A memoir by Alice M. Kenny that intersperses episodes from her life with research on the risks faced by children of mentally ill moms, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in general, and the science of resilience. 

The Relentless Courage of a Scared Child: How Persistence, Grit, and Faith Created a Reluctant Healer

A memoir by Tana Amen about overcoming her challenging past of neglect, poverty, and sexual abuse to find healing, using proven wellness techniques from the Amen Clinics. 

Educated

An inspirational memoir by Tara Westover about overcoming a childhood where her survivalist parents kept her from school to go on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. 

Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness

A memoir by Jessie Close with Pete Earley and Glenn Close that shares Jessie’s story of living with severe bipolar disorder and her tumultuous journey to find the emotional fortitude to bring herself back from the edge. 

The Glass Castle

A memoir of resilience and redemption by Jeannette Walls about growing up—and growing from—a dysfunctional, but vibrant, childhood.