Mark Lukach felt helpless as his wife had a psychotic break and spent twenty-some days in the psych ward. She gets to go home, but the depression lingers. When he asks what she wants to do one day, she says she wants to go to the Golden Gate Bridge and jump. My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is about a relationship working through crisis. But it’s also a stunning mental health memoir told through the eyes of the caregiver, focusing on the despair of being on the sidelines.

I also wrote about how meaningful this book is to me in 2017. It was a few months into dating my soon-to-be husband and he came with me to a reading. With him sitting beside me, I finally realized how hurtful it is for him when my depression puts words in my mouth.

✨ From Mental Health Memoirs From the Sidelines at Crooked Reads.