“Mark, if I kill myself, will you promise me that you will find a new wife so that you can still be happy?”(HarperWave)
Mark and Guilia met and fell in love at eighteen, got married at twenty-four and were living happily ever after in San Francisco when mental illness decided to enter and blow their lives apart. The once golden girl started a new job and soon her anxiety level was through the roof, she couldn’t sleep or eat, she was losing weight and fear overwhelmed her. At twenty-seven, Guilia had a psychotic breakdown which put her in the psych ward for nearly a month.
“Mark, I am the devil,” she whispered through a fog of Ativan.
Following an intensive outpatient program and medication, including anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, Guilia got well. After some time, she and Mark had a son named Jonas. But then there was another breakdown, followed by another. Their belief that Guilia’s disease was behind them was completely crushed and their future as a family was uncertain.
Mark Lukach tells an intensely personal story about it’s like to live with someone you love who has mental illness. It is unlike any other journey a person can take. Some relationships can make it, in Lukach’s it grows stronger anchored in a love that will give hope to everyone who reads, MY LOVELY WIFE IN THE PSYCH WARD. I was also moved by how gentle Mark was in the telling of his story.
Purchase Links
HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
About Mark Lukach
Mark Lukach is a teacher and freelance writer. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Pacific Standard, Wired, and other publications. He is currently the ninth-grade dean at the Athenian School, where he also teaches history. He lives with his wife, Giulia, and their son, Jonas, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Find out more about Mark at his website, and connect with him on Facebook and Instagram.
Thanks to TLC Book Tours http://www.tlcbooktours.com and HarperCollins, we are able to provide one copy of MY LOVELY WIFE IN THE PSYCH WARD to one lucky reader.
Just tell us about how mental illness has affected you in some way. Depression came along when I was a young kid, and decided to stick around. At this point in my life, it’s pretty manageable and I’m open about sharing, because NO ONE should fear the stigma. It’s a potentially deadly disease. Don’t suffer alone. Get help. Text: TEXT CRISIS LINE # 741741
We’ll announce winner Monday.
Cindy Reads & Writes 
Depression hit me at the age of 8 and it still lingers heavily. My family has been affected by mental illness, i.e. personality disorder, bipolar, and other disorders. I often wonder if it is in the genes.
I would love to read this book as my daughter has been in and out of hospital with depression for the last 2 years. Unfortunately more in hospital than out.
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I have suffered from depression since my teens. I only medicated for it for a short period of time, not liking that a little pill was dictating my life. I now have even more reason for depression and I am fighting it even harder than usual. Far too many people still do not recognize depression, or any mental illness for that matter, as actual disease. Reading helps!
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My son had a college roommate who suffered from bipolar disease. Unfortunately he committed suicide. It was devastating.
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i know that my father suffered with depression but was a productive and hard working person. Now that I am on meds for various medical problems the side effect is depression, but I try to work through this even though it is a major concern.
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Depression runs in my family, but I didn’t know until I was an adult. Everyone kept it hush-hush. It would have helped to know that my family could understand what I was feeling.
Dianna
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I had horrible post partem with my first child. I didn’t even trust myself alone with her. After trying different meds and lots of prayer and support from family I was finally able to break through.
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I remember experiencing anxiety very early in my childhood, and unfortunately, I find that as I get older, it gets harder and harder to manage. I agree with you that it’s important for all of us to talk about mental illness because the stigma has got to go.
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Depression should not have to have a stigma with it. There IS help for this. One just needs to stay diligent about it.
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I had a friend in high school handsome popular &slowly became more&s’more depressed.His parents did everything they could to help him but there was no answer.At the age of 17 he took his own life true heartbreak,
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After I had my daughter the PPD never seemed to go away…. my son has issues as well and it’s a daily battle. A friend lost her son in January because he couldn’t cope anymore – so we are advocates for destroying the stigma!
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I have suffered from depression since I was in 5th grade and it affected me a lot! I even thought about committing suicide but I didn’t because my entire family would have been devastated if I had gone down that road. I am a lot stronger now than I was back then. I still suffer depression and I’m a different person when I do not take my medicine.
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Thank you everyone for sharing such personal accounts.
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After my mother passed away 7 years ago, my father insisted on living alone in his own house. After having a mild stroke he couldn’t get around very well and became house-bound. He became more and more depressed over the years, wanting to know why he was still alive. What can you say to someone in this situation to ease their pain?
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