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In this paper, the author, who is a single mother of a young man with mental illness, describes her son’s first psychotic break. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries, and medical case notes, she explores the embodied experience of witnessing her son’s decompensation. In sharing her story, she reminds other caregivers of people with mental illness that they are not alone. She makes sense of her experience with findings from the literature about posttraumatic stress among family caregivers of people with chronic illness and explores the implications for caregivers, practitioners, and scholars of mental illness, trauma, and loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author describes her son's first psychotic break, subsequent hospitalizations, and outpatient care. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries and medical case notes, she tells the story of how she became his primary caregiver. This narrative describes interactions that she has had with her son's psychologists, psychiatrists, and physicians, framed by imagined interactions that she has had with a former mentee who is now mentoring her about autoethnographic research. In telling her story, she hopes to convey what it is like to be a single parent of a young man with mental illness in a community in which the quality of mental health care is abysmal. By invoking alternative modes of inquiry, such as autoethnographic narrative, poetry, and imagined interactions, she challenges traditional methods of social science inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the author gives voice to turning points in her life related to infidelity, mental illness, and forgiveness. By melding poetry, prose, dream journal entries, and medical case notes, she tells the story of how she became a single parent of a young man with mental illness. This narrative constitutes a defining moment in which she reframes an unforgivable relational transgression as an unforgettable opportunity for forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]