Losing Dad, Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Family's Search for Hope (10th Anniversary Edition) - Hardcover

by Amanda Lapera (Author), Xavier Amador (Foreword by)

No drugs. No warning. How does a devoted father develop schizophrenia at fifty-three?

Joseph is grounded, responsible, and deeply connected to his family-until sudden medical events disrupt his life. Confusion escalates into grandiose delusions and paranoia. Convinced he is a prophet of God and that enemies are out to kill him, he vanishes across continents-claiming arrest in Israel, preaching to a Mafioso in Italy, and being hailed as a prophet in Africa. Then he disappears. He drifts into homelessness in the United States, confronting danger, isolation, and a reality only he can see. Well-meaning medical and legal protocols create obstacles for his wife and three children, who race to find him before he is lost forever.Their greatest fear: that he will not only die-but die unknown, unreachable, and alone.Told through the perspectives of Joseph, his spouse, and their children, Losing Dad is a gripping true story and a rare window into the lived experience of late-onset schizophrenia-revealing its devastating impact on identity, family, and the challenges of navigating a system unprepared for those who cannot recognize their illness.Featuring a foreword by Dr. Xavier Amador, expert on anosognosia and founder of the LEAP Institute, this 10th Anniversary Edition includes updated insights into mental health laws, family interviews, photographs, and expanded discussion questions. For readers, caregivers, and professionals alike, this Silver Award-winning memoir in Psychology (IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards) is both an intimate case study and a compelling account of love, loss, and the realities of severe mental illness. .

NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING BOOK

• IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award in Psychology
• Readers' Favorite Award Finalist in Non-Fiction - Grief/Hardship
• Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Quarter-Finalist Nonfiction Memoir