For Immediate Release: PERFECT CHAOS By Linea Johnson and Cinda Johnson

PERFECT CHAOS (St. Martin’s Press; May 8, 2012; $24.99; 320pp) opens with Linea Johnson in high school.  Despite her occasional fears for her future, Linea experiences the everyday highs and lows of a typical teenager while her mother, father and sister stand by with support and love.  As members of the mental health profession, Linea’s parents, Cinda and Curt are keenly more aware of the sensitive nature of their otherwise bright, athletic and overachieving daughter.  It is not until she is settled in the college of her dreams across the country, and with a musical career on the horizon, that their worst fears are realized.

Writing before, during and post diagnosis, Linea’s journal entries are heartbreaking: “There is no form of art capable of expressing this madness.”  Her transition from intelligent, well adjusted, and happy student to depression and hopelessness become a roller coaster ride for her, her family and friends.  Linea’s words capture the cyclical highs and lows of the disorder which make diagnosis and treatment elusive goals.  “The pills take the edge off, so instead of wanting to shout how much I want to die from the top of the my lungs, I can only mumble it under my breath.”  Her suicidal ideation lands her in the psych ward and what follows are the desperate attempts to save her life. 

PERFECT CHAOS holds back nothing.  We watch in anguish as Cinda vigilantly guards over Linea and questions every parental decision.  “How could I take her independence from her when it was that very spirit that was her greatest ally in fighting this illness?”  It is ultimately their trust and shared truths, coupled with Linea’s fight for independence that helps her get her life back. Through electro-shock therapy, depression, mania, cutting, bulimia, drugs and alcohol use, and the wrong medications Linea writes.  “How am I supposed to trust the doctors when one pill makes me lack any personality and the other brings mood swings so large they long to kill?”

Since writing the book, Linea and Cinda have become national spokespeople for mental health awareness at conferences across the world for such organizations as Glenn Close’s Bring Change 2 Mind, The Balanced Mind Foundation, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and many more.  Their hope is to erase the stigma attached to this illness. 

Some relevant information for Mental Health Awareness Month includes:

• Statistics: One in every four families has someone suffering from a mental illness.  For teens and adults, 46% will suffer from a serious mental illness in their lifetimes.
• Studies: “A new study by the American Psychiatric Association has suggested that people are more willing to put their money toward avoided medical illnesses than mental illnesses.”⎯EmpowHer
• Costs of Mental Illness: “Medications and treatment for chronic depression and anxiety can add the equivalence of a car payment to one’s monthly budget.” ⎯Cinda Johnson
• Linea’s Treatment: Counseling, Medication, Support Network, Lifestyle Change, Alternative Therapy