From the archive
My Mother’s Impossible Choice: Schizophrenia or Its Treatments
Suzanne Sherman recalls her mother’s struggle with schizophrenia, a notoriously difficult illness to treat. Roughly five percent of those diagnosed die by suicide. For some patients, though, the remedies can be almost as painful as the underlying disease.
I was in seventh grade and Led Zeppelin was my favorite rock band. One day, I heard “Stairway to Heaven” coming from the living room. My mother liked folk music—not rock. I went in to see what was going on.
There she was, sitting cross-legged on the carpet by the stereo cabinet, playing one of my Zeppelin albums. When I asked what she was doing, she looked up at me with an eerie smile. "Do you hear what they’re saying?"
Robert Plant was singing that words sometimes have two meanings. I knew the song well.
"They know," she whispered. With her eyes, she implored me to understand.
I would never listen to that song again.
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