What a Life Can Be: One Therapist's Take on Schizo-Affective Disorder. Paperback – October 16, 2011

I have a question: Was the author writing about herself? Was the author herself in fact Jane? The book gave me the six A's of Self-Help. I related so much to Jane's story. I want there to be a little bit more about Jane's life. I was able to grieve with her along the way. I went to college and graduate school with her. I was able to understand what she saw in Carol and was able to be sad when he left. I want more discussion about her true thoughts of her disease more than just her story. I followed the whole way through. I was uplifted, informed, and inspired at the end of the book. A good book insights emotions.

Got it today and I am half way through - can't put it down.This is a must read for anyone who knows someone with a diagnosis of Schizo-Affective Disorder. It is dialog between a therapist and a patient, along with their unspoken thoughts. Patient is also sending her journal pages to the therapist to review. My 30-year old son has Schizo-Affective Disorder, and I can relate to the parents feelings of frustration, confusion and self-blame. The eye-opening part for me was the journal, since it describes the symptoms she is experiencing along with her thoughts at the time. You quickly see she is living a different reality than those around her. It is heart wrenching to read her thoughts. She is aware of, but has no control over, what is going on in her world.

I finished reading this book two months ago and still think about "Jane" the protagonist; I hope she's doing well and wonder what new things she has accomplished. This is because the book does such a great job of letting you get to know her--all the various facets of her personality, without judgment--that I almost think of her as a friend or long-lost pen pal. Dr. Dobbins narrative helps reduce fear of SZA and, especially. of people with this disorder. I don't know how many times I've quoted to people the statement Jane makes that we don't ostracise people with diabetes or other diseases of imbalance and yet we don't apply the same kindness and compassion to people with mental disorders that science is constantly discovering are at least partially the result of chemical imbalances.

I felt so grateful for and blessed by this memoir that I emailed the author to thank her.....and I actually received a response from her!!! What a nice person she is!Our son, age 34, is schizo-affective with bipolar II, and everything I read online indicated he would never "have a lilfe." Carolyn's experience belies this and has given us hope, although, as this book taught us, victims of this disorder come in as great variety as do people in the general, non-afflicted population. Not everyone is as smart and as ambitious as Carolyn, but there is hope for everyone, and we learned not to allow ourselves or our son to be victimized a second time by the negative stigma that mental illness often arouses in others.Fortunately, our son had a late onset of schizo symptoms and has a college degree and years of positive social interaction, so he may have a slightly better prognosis than some.This is a must read for parents of mentally ill children.

I greatly applaud Dr Dobbins for writing this book. Having dealt with these issues in myself and family members, she has reaffirmed my already deeply held convictions that society needs more education on this topic and that recovery and rehabilitation are possible. Not only are they possible but there is much to be gained through the process.

For distraught family members, it says the things your loved ones may not be able to say for themselves providing crucial insight to understand and empathize with what they are going through. For patients, especially for patients, please read this. Please give this a chance and see that there really is hope for a meaningful life in spite of the cruelty that comes both from this awful illness and the society that fears and misunderstands it.

Wishing all the best, from someone diagnosed for six years now. Stigma needs to be erased and more needs to be done.

I too live life day by day with schizoaffective disorder. The author account of life going through day by day with this disorder resonates to anyone with this disorder. Finally, someone who knows what it's like and can still live a normal life

not the best book on scizo affective disorder but theres not many out there so this is still in my top five to read.