Hello, I’m Nan Walker. I always loved music and was thrilled when I was able to live the life of a performing musician. I married a fellow musician I loved dearly and raised three amazing children. Life was good and lots of fun until the members of my family began to suffer from mental illnesses one by one, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and addiction. For many years, life was quite a roller coaster ride.
My mission is simple. I know what it is to be confronted with tough situations caused by mental illness, and I hope that by writing about them and my struggles to resolve them, some of my readers might find comfort and encouragement, especially when they realize that they are not alone.
During many years of coping with these problems in my family, I was often amazed that people didn’t want to talk about mental illness at all. In fact, I was frequently reminded that most people want to keep family mental health problems exceedingly well hidden. Without exception, when people have asked me about my book, eventually they disclose that they, or perhaps their relatives, or maybe even good friends, also have a family member with mental health problems.
Truly this is a terrible situation. It is also quite dangerous. Why? Because we can never get to a better place with treatment options, and we will never pass more helpful laws relating to mental health until more people understand its seriousness and how commonly it occurs.
In order to do my part to help open up wider discussions about mental illness, I wrote the book “My Life With Crazy”. In the book, I tell our stories and also address a variety of issues that affect us, including gun laws, HIPAA rules, and so forth. A selection of suggestions for self-help, that is, for coping with these problems, is also included. In truth, we will never get anywhere until we talk about mental health openly and often, and acknowledge how regularly these problems occur.
Nan Walker is not my real name. As I’ve written about my life and the lives of my family members very honestly, and have included some rather wild stories, I was required to publish anonymously. However, every single thing I write about is absolutely true and written as accurately as possible.
And if you need to get in touch with me, please do so through my social media.
Here’s how: