Sarah LaBrie’s Mom Had Severe Mental Illness So Sarah Had to Figure Out Her Past and Her Future

Content Warning: This episode discusses borderline personality disorder, delusions, psychosis and schizophrenia. Sarah was having an ordinary day in her life as a writer living in Los Angeles when her phone rang. Her grandmother explained that Sarah’s mom had been picked up ranting and raving on the side of the freeway in Houston, where Sarah grew up. It was a shock but not a surprise for Sarah, who had already lived with her mother’s psychosis, schizophrenia, delusions for as long as she could remember, the occurrences getting more frequent as time went on. Fortunately, Sarah had wonderful loving care from her grandmother and her aunt who provided support and strategies for what Sarah was going through. Sarah, the author of the memoir No One Gets to Fall Apart, talks about conflicts with her mom from childhood through to Sarah’s successful career and marriage as an adult. She also shares how really studying and exploring the situation has helped her make connections between traumatic events and the ways both she and her mother shaped their lives as a result of that trauma. In the interview, Sarah mentions the book Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship, which she found very helpful.