Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness

by Jessie Close, Pete Earley

Overview

At a young age, Jessie Close struggled with symptoms that would transform into severe bipolar disorder in her early twenties, but she was not properly diagnosed until the age of fifty. Jessie and her three siblings, including actress Glenn Close, spent many years in the Moral Re-Armament cult. Jessie passed her childhood in New York, Switzerland, Connecticut, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), and finally Los Angeles, where her life quickly became unmanageable. She was just fifteen years old.

Jessie's emerging mental illness led her into a life of addictions, five failed marriages, and to the brink of suicide. She fought to raise her children despite her ever worsening mental conditions and under the strain of damaged romantic relationships. Her sister Glenn and certain members of their family tried to be supportive throughout the ups and downs, and Glenn's vignettes in RESILIENCE provide an alternate perspective on Jessie's life as it began to spiral out of control. Jessie was devastated to discover that mental illness was passed on to her son Calen, but getting him help at long last helped Jessie to heal as well. Eleven years later, Jessie is a productive member of society and a supportive daughter, mother, sister, and grandmother.

In RESILIENCE, Jessie dives into the dark and dangerous shadows of mental illness without shying away from its horror and turmoil. With New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Pete Earley, she tells of finally discovering the treatment she needs and, with the encouragement of her sister and others, the emotional fortitude to bring herself back from the edge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455530229
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/13/2015
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	857,262
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Jessie Close is an internationally recognized speaker, author, poet and advocate for mental health reform. She authored The Warping of Al, and she writes a blog for Bring Change 2 Mind. Jessie has received awards from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America, as well as the Jed Foundation Award and The McLean Award. She lives in Montana with her Service Dog, Snitz, and three other dogs.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Prologue 1

Part 1 Not Your Normal Childhood 5

Vignette Number One by Glenn Close 30

Vignette Number Two by Glenn Close 59

Part 2 Husbands and Others 69

Vignette Number Three by Glenn Close 98

Part 3 Montana April, A Fetal-Position Month 153

Part 4 The Monster Within Me 193

Part 5 Finding Myself 241

Epilogue Glenn Close 299

Acknowledgments 303

Editorial Reviews

11/24/2014
In a heartfelt journey through self-destructive manic-depressive states, Close (The Warping of Al) chronicles her journey to recovery and activism with the help of actress Glenn Close, her older sister. The author was born in Connecticut in 1953, the youngest of the four Close children. After their parents, doctor Bill and Bettina, became missionaries in the Christian evangelical group Moral Re-Armament (MRA), the family moved to the Belgian Congo in 1960, where Bill became the personal physician to Colonel Joseph Mobutu and his army. Shuttled between Africa and her mother’s relatives in Greenwich, Conn., the young author stumbled into destructive behavior without much supervision, experimenting with sex and drugs; at the age of 17, her parents encouraged her to get married to an abusive boyfriend rather than “living in sin.” Close moved to California; Washington, D.C.; Texas; and Wyoming, remarrying again and again and living on her trust fund. Her manic-depressive episodes remained undiagnosed into adulthood and brought out erratic behavior and heavy drinking, even as she had to care for her two sons and daughter. By the early 1990s she was having wild mood swings and suicidal thoughts, until she was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Close’s story alternates with brief corroborative vignettes written by her sister in a belabored and grim memoir that will nonetheless reach its intended audience thanks to the author’s famous sister and their shared nonprofit group geared toward mental health, Bring Change 2 Mind. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"She has lived a life that even at her worst was spellbinding, and it's a definitely-worth-the-read memoir."—USA Today

"It's obvious that this is no ordinary memoir...hard to put down...Close is telling her story to the world in hopes of removing the stigma from mental illness. It's a story well worth reading."—BookPage

From the Publisher

02/01/2015
Stick with this memoir—a brutal story of severe bipolar disorder, by the sister of actress Glenn Close, with author Earley. It start with the lifestyle of Jessie and Glenn's parents, who were seduced into joining the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement. They moved to an MRA compound near Mount Kisco, NY, then to an MRA house in Switzerland, where care of families was left to surrogates while parents were brainwashed into the cult. When Jessie could cut free, she did. She describes when the indulgences began and the downswings that followed, always fed by alcohol and drugs. As the pages progress, finally, the theme of resilience emerges, and Jessie realizes her almost-adult son also exhibits mental illness. She secures care for him and then seeks treatment for herself. Glenn is supportive, while their parents never see the damage done to their family. Jessie arises from the wreck with goals intact, life clean, and a strong will to make sure this doesn't happen to others. VERDICT This will be popular in public libraries in which memoirs and mental-health issues are widely read. It is written chronologically, giving readers all the ups and downs of a life affected with a bipolar disorder. Also for fans of actress Glenn Close. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14.]—Linda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA

Library Journal

Actress Glenn Close’s younger sister, Jessie, was diagnosed late in life with bipolar disorder. Here her sincere, no-holds-barred narration describing her struggle with mental illness is mesmerizing. Fully honest, Jessie describes wildly erratic behavior through her childhood into adult years, including five marriages, numerous affairs, numerous career paths, and coping with her schizophrenic son. Never hesitating to recount embarrassing behavior, unusual family history, and, most significantly, the stigma of mental illness, Jessie’s riveting autobiographical account of life with this disease provides a long overdue advocacy for its social awareness. Sister Glenn, in a cameo format, provides her own account of various periods in Jessie’s life. This compelling performance by both sisters brings attention to the living with, and treatment of, mental illness. B.J.P. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2015 - AudioFile

2014-10-22
An honest tale of living with bipolar disorder.With the assistance of Earley (The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most Terrifying Killers, 2012, etc.), Close, sister of actress Glenn Close, details the difficult journey of living the first 50 years of her life with an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder. Though she holds nothing back, the author begins slowly as she outlines her maternal and paternal lineages, but her story quickly escalates into a harrowing ride for readers unaccustomed to the ups and downs of someone living with a mental disorder. When her parents joined the Moral Re-Armament in the 1950s, Close's childhood became chaotic, with frequent moves, one of which led the family to Switzerland and another to the Belgian Congo, where her father was physician to President Mobutu. By 15, she'd moved back to America to live with her grandmother and instantly began experimenting with sex, drugs and alcohol, three things Close would continue to abuse for the next three decades. The author candidly discusses her multiple marriages and her continued inability to understand her alternating manic and depressive states, which appear to have escalated in intensity with age. It was only when her son, Calen, was hospitalized and eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia that Close began to look more seriously at her own extreme mood cycles and seek permanent help to stop her abusive drinking and to silence the voice in her head that insisted she kill herself. With the help of her sister and family, Close was able to afford good treatment for herself and her son, and Close's sister went on to establish the nonprofit organization Bring Change 2 Mind, which targets the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding mental disorders. Despite the slow start, the book is packed with emotion and courageous personal reflections.

Kirkus Reviews