Book Review: My Lovely Wife in the Psyche Ward

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautifully written. However, my criticism is on how Mark, who is the narrator and caregiver, approaches to help his sick wife. He is taking too hard on his wife forcing her to take the medicine. His wife, Giulia, is not wrong calling him Medicine Nazi. Mark thinks that medicine would fix her just like magic. It is not so. When she cannot fall asleep, he would force her to increase Rispiridol. [I have a mental illness. I take Rispiridol. My understanding is if I cannot fall asleep, I spend the night anyway by reading book, facebooking, or make tea. Next morning I’m very tired and take off from work. But next night, I’m so tired that, after normal medicine, I collapse on the bed.]

Mark second mistake was when their son, Jonas, was born. Giulia again became psychotic. She already made an appointment with her psychiatric, but instead, Mark rushed her to ER. And she was admitted again, and she was separated from son. [Sometimes even ER takes it wrong. He should have waited for her scheduled appointment with her own psychiatrist. I was once in crisis. It happened to me in a mall. I couldn’t make to home and so I called my friend who took me to ER. After a long wait, the psychiatrist diagnosed it a panic attack. I saw my own doctor the next day who said that it was not panic attack but mania returned.]

My conclusion is that Mark took the psychosis too seriously. He should have encouraged Giulia to journal what she thought. Let her speak about her problem with Devil.

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