Mental Health Books

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In 2015, Beyond Well founder Sheila Hamilton released her memoir, All the Things We Never Knew, Chasing the Chaos of Mental Illness.

Even as a reporter, Sheila Hamilton missed the signs as her husband David’s mental illness unfolded before her. By the time she had pieced together the puzzle, it was too late. Her once brilliant, intense, and hilarious partner was dead within six weeks of a formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder, leaving his nine-year-old daughter and wife without so much as a note to explain his actions, a plan to help them recover from their profound grief, or a solution for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt that they would inherit from him.

All the Things We Never Knew takes listeners from David and Sheila’s romance through the last three months of their life together and into the year after his death. It details their unsettling descent from ordinary life into the world of mental illness and examines the fragile line between reality and madness. Now, a decade after David’s death, Sheila and her daughter, Sophie, have learned the power of choosing life over retreat, let themselves love and trust again, and understand the importance of forgiveness. Their story will resonate with all those who have loved someone suffering from bipolar disease and mental illness.

All the Things We Never Knew is a boldly beautiful page-turner about loving and losing someone with mental illness. With unblinking honesty and profound compassion, Sheila Hamilton brings us vividly into her confusion, sorrow, and ultimate healing. I’ll be recommending this absorbing memoir for years to come.

Cheryl Strayed
Bestselling author of Wild

If you’ve ever asked the question ‘Do I need help?’ or ‘Does my loved one need help?’ then read this book. Merging her gut-wrenching personal story with all-pro journalistic acumen, Sheila Hamilton gives us the who-what-where-when-why of mental illness and what you can do to get the help you need. Most of all, this book gives us permission not to go through hardship alone, no matter what crises we face.

Laura Munson
New York Times best-selling author of This Is Not The Story You Think It Is, and founder of Haven Writing Retreats

Sheila Hamilton’s All The Things We Never Knew is one of the most candid, heart-wrenching, and deeply moving accounts of the wake of destruction caused by the suicide of a loved one. Her book reminds us of those we’ve lost to suicide. The book casts the dark shadow that is depression, then rises from such darkness, reminding us to ‘Look to the living, love them, and hold on.’ Finally, it gives survivors tremendous resolve to continue in their quest for prevention.

Kevin Hines
Mental health speaker, activist, and author of Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After a Suicide Attempt

All the Things We Never Knew is so beautiful, so raw, and so powerful. It is, in a word, spectacular, and Sheila Hamilton is so generous and brave to share this story with the rest of the world. Anyone who has struggled with mental illness—their own, their family members’, their friends’ (which is to say, all of us)—will come away from this deeply humane book feeling less alone.

Kelly Williams Brown
Bestselling author of Adulting

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