January First: A Child's Descent Into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her

by Michael Schofield

A harrowing memoir from the father of a seven-year-old girl, January First is the desperate story of Michael's mission to find out what is wrong with his highly intelligent daughter. Right from when she was a newborn, January has kept her parents on their toes: as a baby she slept for only 20 minutes at a time, as a one year old she spoke in complete sentences, at two she asked about negative numbers, and by three had literally hundreds of imaginary friends. But when her brother Bodhi arrives her behaviour becomes increasingly violent, her never-ending delusions and hallucinations interspersed with paroxysms of rage that eventually force her parents to live in separate one-bedroom apartments - communicating with walkie-talkies to keep her brother safe. As her father does the rounds of child psychologists, doctors and locked hospital wards, he provides an unflinchingly honest account of parenting, as well as an indictment of the lack of care for children with severe mental illness. January First shows the passionate dedication of a father who refuses to give up on his little girl even as her behaviour becomes ever more alien.
An eventual diagnosis is reached of one of the most severe cases of child-onset schizophrenia that doctors have ever seen: January is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake and potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her.

• ISBN10: 0307719081
• ISBN13: 9780307719089
• Publish Date: 7 August 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 3 September 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 291
• Language: English

Reviews

[elvinagb]

As a parent, it is hard to imagine what these parents went through in the early years of their daughter's life. I found that Michael appeared to be very open and honest in his feelings and opinions; but it was hard to hear him be critical of other people not being able to understand Janni's behaviour when he and his wife didn't really understand what was wrong with her either. No parent should have to experience what they have and it is an eye opener as to the lack of support (in this case in California) that is not their for families dealing with any kind of illness whether mental or not.