Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia (Paperback)

by Anne Deveson (Author), D. Fuller Torrey (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Australian documentary filmmaker Deveson offers a brave and frank account of her son Jonathan's seven-year battle with schizophrenia exacerbated by drug abuse, which ended with his death from a drug overdose at age 24 in 1986. As a newborn Jonathan suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and as a child and adolescent he had nightmares and seemed anxious, but otherwise his development was uneventful until a sudden personality shift at the age of 17, which led to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Without sentimentality, Deveson describes how Jonathan giggled at his father's funeral, how he wrecked Deveson's house and tried to kill her, believing her to be the Devil, and how he sat in jail for months on an armed robbery charge of which he turned out to be innocent (Deveson refused to post bail because the court would not commit Jonathan to a hospital for treatment). Deveson details her fruitless search for a cure, which even took her to India, and her impotence in the face of Jonathan's refusal to be helped and laws that put his civil rights before his health. Not wishing to intrude on others' privacy, she obliquely refers to the strain her other children have endured, and the sundering of her relationship with a live-in lover.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Writer, broadcaster, filmmaker, and a founder of the National Schizophrenia Australia Organization, Anne Deveson writes her own deeply personal story of her teenage son's experience of schizophrenia and a mother's realization of her child's insanity. The book won Australia's 1991 Human Rights Nonfiction Award. Deveson will appear at the 1991 Annual Convention of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Washington, D.C., September 9-13.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140173390
• ISBN-13: 978-0140173390
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,024,725 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tell Me I'm Here by Anne Deveson, January 31, 2007

By	Michele N (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

Anybody who's read a lot about or even worked with afflicted clients and thought they have a good understanding of what it'd be like to have Schizophrenia will find this book a real eye opener! It's a MUST READ for all families, friends, workers and Doctors alike. It's written in a very easy to read and understandable format, as unemotional as could be possible in such circumstances. I personally think it is the best book on Schizophrenia that's available within a non-clinical context. I give it the highest of recommendations.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There are two books that should be ordered together, August 11, 2001

By	Jan Parker (Jax, Fl) - See all my reviews

There are two books that should be ordered together, this one, "Tell Me I'm Here" One Family's experience of Schizophrenia, by Anne Deveson and "I am Not Sick I Don't Need Help" by Dr. Xavier Amador. "Tell me... is a story from a mother's perspctive of doing everything possible for a young adult, and her relationship with her son who had a duel diagnosis of both Schizophrenia and drug addiction. This mother did just about everything to bring her son to recovery. "Tell me...: is told with a good writing style and down under mater of fact blatancy. It is easy to follow the events of this woman's life and how the illness affected not only her son but the whole family that loves a person who has schizophrenia. "I am not Sick I Don't need Help" is the clinical method, which might bring a schizophrenic loved one into medicine compliance. The two together can be a powerful ally to both protecting not only the ill person but the caregiver as well. The two books together can give shocked loved ones of an ill person a fighting chance at surviving "the crisis event", and the initial treatment phase which is very emotional for all and exausting. According to one psychiatrist 99.99% of recovery in schizophrenia is medicine compliance. These books do not support stigma and fear, the first two hurdles when the loved one is diagnosed.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most moving story I have ever read., October 15, 1996

By A Customer

This book is one of the most heart wrenching stories that I have ever read. The author takes you into the world of schizophrenia. You feel the emotions and the heartache that she felt while seeing her son slip in and out of madness. It is the only book that has ever made me cry while reading it. It is the only book that I have been moved to share with people.I encourage anyone who has the chance to buy it, and don't forget your handkerchief, you'll need it.