Liza Long is the mother of a child with an undiagnosed mental disorder. When she heard about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, her first thought was, "What if my son does that someday?" She wrote an emotional response to the tragedy, which the Boise State University online journal posted as "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother." The post went viral, receiving 1.2 million Facebook likes, nearly 17,000 tweets, and 30,000 emails.
Now, in The Price of Silence she takes a devastating look at how we address mental illness, especially in children, who are funneled through a system of education, mental health care, and juvenile detention that leads far too often to prison. In the end she asks one central question: If there's a poster child for cancer, why can't there be one for mental illness? The answer: the stigma. Liza Long is speaking in a way that we cannot help but hear, and she won't stop until something changes.
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“‘Accidental advocate’ Long, whose blog post ‘I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother’ went viral, expands on her ideas for improving the lives of mentally ill children and their families…She effectively reminds readers that the people most affected by the treatment of mentally ill children should have a voice, and that including even the most difficult members of our society in the discussion is a first step.”
— Publishers Weekly
“In this courageous, determined, radical book, Liza Long exposes the dearth of alternatives for parents of kids with mental illnesses, the shame that attends their perceived failures, and the hope that such families may find their collective voice and demand better options. I hope her passionate cry is heard far and wide.”
— Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of Far from the Tree“Not only is Liza Long’s The Price of Silence an honest and inspiring memoir but it’s an incisive indictment of what passes for a mental-health-care system in America—and what’s too often the result, mental illness leading to prison, not treatment. But The Price of Silence doesn’t only illuminate the crisis, it offers solutions—ones that can lead to healing.”
— David Sheff, New York Times bestselling author of Clean“A courageous story and a timely warning about the present mental health care crisis.”
— Library Journal“The mother of a mentally ill son who suffered from uncontrollable rages proves to be a powerful advocate for children with mental illness and their families…A searing indictment of the lack of affordable care available for the treatment of mentally ill adolescents.”
— Kirkus ReviewsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Liza Long is an author, educator, mental health advocate, and the mother of four children based in Boise, Idaho. She has written and edited extensively for regional publications, including Eagle magazine, Greenbelt magazine, and the Blue Review. Since her essay “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother” went viral, she has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Erin Burnett OutFront, and Anderson Cooper 360, among others. She presented a talk on stigma at TEDx San Antonio in October 2013.
Karen White has been narrating audiobooks of all genres since 1999. Honored to be included in AudioFile’s Best Voices, she’s also a four-time Audie Finalist and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and Library Journal starred reviews.