What About the Kids?: When Your Parent has Schizophrenia (Ep. 117) Artwork

Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches

Schizophrenia in the Family. How do we cope? How can we help? We each have adult sons with schizophrenia and have written acclaimed books about it. We say it like it is, to help families, practitioners and those with SMI (serious mental illness) feel less alone...and learn. Randye Kaye, Mindy Greiling, Miriam Feldman...and guests.

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Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches

What About the Kids?: When Your Parent has Schizophrenia (Ep. 117)

June 04, 2025 • Randye Kaye • Season 5 • Episode 17

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Guests: Natasha Williams and Liz Sjaastad

Natasha Williams -The Parts of Him I Kept: The Gifts of My Father's Madness (Natasha’s book) is an intimate account of a daughter’s coming of age in the face of her father’s schizophrenic unraveling. Williams investigates the limits of our medical and cultural understanding of schizophrenia while chronicling the shared burden and benefits of caring for a mentally ill family member.

Liz Sjaastad - Liz has written a memoir, You’re Too Young to Understand, about growing up with, and then caring for, her father – a quiet Russian immigrant, an intellectual who drank too much and her mother – a smart and proper beauty who suffered with the life-altering brain illness of schizophrenia, though she never acknowledged it.

We ask:

If you could give one piece of advice to a child with parents like yours, what would it be?

When did you begin to understand?

Did your family life affect your siblings differently? If so, how?

Have you forgiven your parents and if so when and how?

When did you think your children were old enough to understand? How did you talk with them?

Have you stopped fearing for yourself getting a serious mental illness? Your children?

LINKS:

Liz Sjaastad

lsjaastad@comcast.net

www.lizsjaastad.com

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