AUTHOR & ADVOCATE

C. Ann Conn, MD

I am a doctor of Neurology and a mother who, five years ago, twice endured loss that is the worst fear of every parent—the illness and death of a child. Mine is a story of a doctor’s journey with psychotic illness and suicide. It is a story of stunning loss and survival.

Others have lost a child by suicide, but few have lost two children and so close in time. I lived the compressed circumstances of Austin’s and Colin’s descent into psychosis and their deaths nine months apart.

Ours was a  journey with mythologized illness, an experience objectified by society, shaped and controlled by the collective fear of psychosis. I’m working toward the publication of my manuscript.

In May of 2014, my younger son, Colin, died of suicide. Nine months later, my older son, Austin, also died by suicide. In the aftermath of these deaths, I began to write the truth of their deaths, my grief and return to life. From these writings, a memoir emerged.

Dr. Conn supports NAMI and the Stanley Medical Research Institute for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.