Review of Sisters in the Storm

[Sarah Schmidt]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sisters in the Storm" by Linda Hoff.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Parents of mentally ill adult children (MIAC) have a lot on their plate, with little material guiding them on how to navigate their child's mental illness. In her book Sisters in the Storm, Linda Hoff makes manifest a safe space to analyze, validate, and understand the emotions of mothers who care for children with mental illnesses (MI). A sisterhood is forged within these pages; this book serves as a guide for an all-too-common dilemma.

After the initial diagnosis of an adult child with mental illness, making the right choices, saying the correct thing, and eking out a life for your own as their parent gets more than a tiny but tricky. Mental illness brings a host of problems. A lot of discussions abound about the care and treatment of the individuals with debilitating mental illnesses, but what of their parents, who act as caregivers, decision-makers, financiers, and so forth? Hoff explores the situations that can arise in dealing with these children and how parents can live their life while taking care of these adult children.

Content-heavy, Sisters in the Storm is worth recommending for a surplus of reasons, some of which will be expounded on below. Authors, psychotherapists, and more offer up their words of wisdom in the form of quotes, studied and relayed by Hoff to support her arguments. Visualization journeys close each chapter, allowing a type of relaxing imagining that reinforces the thoughts and advice conveyed in said chapter. Key statements from each are highlighted within the chapter, sharing the most important aspects of the ideas relayed. Some noteworthy tips and applicable advice are provided in actionable steps in bullet or list form, with questions introducing an interactive medium. This is a guidebook, and the lessons within are relatable and relevant to the topic at hand.

Personal stories make any non-fiction book worth reading, no matter the subject matter. Linda bares her soul in firsthand accounts of some moments in her journey, dealing with B’s mental illness. You’re invited to witness the struggle of a mother who tries, is only human, and takes her battles one step at a time.

I genuinely believe that this book has been professionally edited. This is as I found no more than four errors in the writing, minor and easily overlooked. Profanity crops up, though infrequently. As for religious aspects, her advice is far-reaching in that it excludes no group; spirituality runs the vein of her message, offending neither religion, atheism, nor agnosticism.

The material notched this book up a scale. Hoff covered the emotions evoked by mental illness watching someone you love be victim to it, practices you should and should not follow, services offered and more. She names NAMI.org as a crucial help in her journey, as well as other supportive organizations. There were two points in the story that struck a resonant thrum within me. The first was her controversial claim to be okay with her son’s choice to end his life if it ever came to that. The second is the frustration she experienced with taking care of her son because of the inadequate services catering to the disease, the HIPAA laws in place, and the stigmatization of MI by society. For the former, suicide and the reasons that lead up to it, not to mention the argument of choice that inevitably pops up on the course of debates on the subject, have always been points of interest for me. With the latter, as someone who has relatives that are afflicted with severe MI, this is a struggle I can relate all too well to. As a disclaimer, she doesn’t advocate for suicidal idealization.

On the negative front, an unfortunate pitfall made the book a chore to wade through. Statements repeated one time too many created a sense of there being filler material scattered throughout the book. The advice is concrete, but hearing or reading something more than once can make it sound trite or boring. The overall length of the book could be cut in half if this extraneous information is removed.

Sisters in the Storm deserves a rating of three out of four stars. Nothing marred the book save for the regurgitative quality of the content, which called for a removal of one star from my final rating. As for recommendations, this book is a guide, a golden, light-emanating hand reaching out in the darkness, ready to prepare parents—especially mothers—of mentally ill adult children for the unforgiving road ahead. Linda Hoff has firsthand experience dealing with and offers applicable tools and advice for anyone with a relative suffering from mental illness, making this book a must-read for this audience.

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Sisters in the Storm
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[Sopulu Ezidimma]

I find this book very necessary and important for women who children are suffering from mental illness. A guide to understand their emotions. Great review

[Uwe Neufeld]

Mentally handicapt children are a great challenge for the parents, because they are dependent even in adulthood.
Great review!

[Pilailuck poomisad]

All forms of violence against children Be it physical, mental, sexual or neglectful violence. All of them have a detrimental effect on children in all aspects. :oops2: