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Zoë's story

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The EADT, Suffolk and Essex's daily newspaper online, featured an article a couple days ago about a woman, Dorothy Schwarz, who recently published a book about her daughter's struggle with bipolar disorder. The article is followed up by another article about why Dorothy felt she should make their family's tragedy—Zoë killed herself at 27—public.

Both articles are extremely powerful, mostly because the family was well-heeled, had plenty of resources and was yet still mired in the kind of ignorance that allowed Zoë's behavior to seem more annoying than pathological. It seems clear she could have been helped if her symptoms were identified sooner.

I love you but I can't live like this
Why I had to write daughter's sad story
Behind a Glass Wall

Comments

This has to be one of the most heartbreaking stories you've posted to date. A beautiful, intelligent young woman, with her whole life still ahead of her, a supportive family, and yet she felt so trapped.
What a tragedy.

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About

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Liz Spikol is senior contributing editor of Philadelphia Weekly. She writes the award-winning column The Trouble With Spikol, which began as a chronicle of her struggle with mental illness, and has since expanded into humorous musings on everything from graphic novels to how to use a mop. She also writes the paper's book review column, Lit Gloss. This blog -- named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 by PsychCentral -- is about mental illness policy, news, personal journeys and more.