Billy: One Family's Insane Journey Through the Virginia Mental Health System

Description

Diagnosed with severe ADHD and bipolar disorder, Billy Hawthorne faced a steep uphill battle to control his mental illness and beat his debilitating addictions to alcohol and DXM products, the active ingredient in cough syrups such as Robotussin and Corocidin. Today Billy is managing his mental illness and his addictions and is ready to move on with his life, but not before relentlessly battling a crazy mental health and criminal justice system in Virginia whose plethora of contradicting rules and criteria many times came close to leaving him for dead.

Relive Billy's 5 year battle through repeated struggles and his ultimate triumph firsthand through the eyes of his father, Woody. It is both Woody and Billy s hope that, through reading this book, other families may be able to avoid much of the pain and craziness that kept Billy from getting better sooner.

About the Author

Woody Hawthorne was born in August 1957 in Schenectady, NY USA. He graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA in 1979 and has worked primarily as an Electromagnetic Compatibility engineer in the aerospace industry for the past 29 years. He and wife Janice now live with son Billy in Merritt Island, VA. Woody enjoys playing his guitar, baseball and his favorite pastime sailing.