Blinded by Hope - by Meg McGuire (Paperback)

About the Book

A fiercely candid and timely memoir about one mother's rollercoaster ride through doubt and denial to save her son from substance abuse and bipolar illness.

Book Synopsis

One day a teenage boy gets on his bike and rides forty miles up California's Pacific Coast Highway to avoid causing an earthquake he fears will endanger his mother and sister. But the quake he is experiencing is not coming from beneath the earth; it's the onset of bipolar illness.
Blinded by Hope describes what it's like to have an unusually bright, creative child--and then to have that child suddenly be hit with an illness that defies description and cure. Over the years, McGuire attributes her son's lost jobs, broken relationships, legal troubles, and periodic hospitalizations to the manic phase of his illness, denying the severity of his growing drug use--but ultimately, she has to face her own addiction to rescuing him, and to forge a path for herself toward acceptance, resilience, and love. A wakeup call about the epidemic of mental illness, substance abuse, and mass incarceration in our society, Blinded by Hope shines a light on the shadow of family dynamics that shame, ignorance, and stigma rarely let the public see, and asks the question: How does a mother cope when love is not enough?

Review Quotes

"Top 10 Memoirs of Summer 2017" --Culturalist
"Her candid tale is followed by a useful list of substance-abuse and mental- illness websites, books, and organizations, making this a helpful resource for parents struggling to make sense of teen or adult children's struggles." --Booklist
"As her heartfelt and moving story descends further into the realms of despair and desperation, the author remains a beacon of hope and sets an amazing example for readers caught in a similar situation involving mental illness and a family member. The bond between mother and child knows no bounds in this intense memoir darkened by addiction and bipolar disorder yet buoyed by love and possibility." --Kirkus Reviews
"Blinded by Hope is the book that every parent should read, even if the child is not, like the son of the author, afflicted with both bipolar disorder and an addiction to illegal drugs. It explains a mystery: Why is it that a parent is reluctant to make their offspring accountable for their destructive behavior? Why do we consistently choose to believe their words over their actions? How are we blinded to the truth by our love and concern for them? Meg McGuire goes to the root of that magical thinking and tells us the story of how she broke the infernal cycle of hope-disappointment-shame-despair-hope. Over the years, she understands the deep-rooted reasons why she, as a mother, cannot stand the disconnection, how she is hooked on motherlove as if in the grip a drug. She has the courage to look at her truth."
-Ginette Paris, PhD, author of Heartbreak, Mourning, Loss: Detach or Die
"Meg McGuire's brilliant and moving story Blinded by Hope returns repeatedly to the tough question of belief: Whose story does one believe? Whose rendering of reality does a parent accept from her child and from herself? When does hope blind one to the truth? The anguish aroused in struggling to read and act on the true story comprises the dramatic tension that shapes the relationship between McGuire and her son."
-Dennis Patrick Slattery, author of Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story