The Book We Wish We Had: How We Stayed Hopeful When Hope Wasn't Enough

Lisa Bachman's son, Justin, was sick, suffering, and broken. Lisa and her husband, Ron, had no idea how to heal, help, or fix him. His third suicide attempt, by the time he was eleven years old, was their final wake-up call. Although he survived, their family was left without a roadmap. They would start down a path through a maze, hit a wall, turn around, and begin again. Thankfully, with help, they found their way. Not only did they get through extraordinarily difficult times with a suicidal son, but he went on to start a nationwide nonprofit organization and become a motivational speaker who led more that 150 full-school assemblies for students in grades five through twelve in sixteen states-all before he turned eighteen.

Mental health problems and the subsequent intolerance and isolation are some of the most prevalent, yet least discussed issues facing parents and kids today. Children and teens are overscheduled, overstimulated, and dealing with challenges and questions that adults could never have imagined. Add in undiagnosed issues, willful ignorance, limited resources, refusal of the school to provide resources and abandonment from those believed to be a support system, and readers will get a glimpse of the obstacles the Bachman family had to overcome to navigate the first twelve years of their son's life.

Bachman wrote The Book We Wish We Had to share her triumphs but even more so, to share her struggles. By revealing her vulnerabilities and missteps, her hope is that readers will relate and become better able to understand that their experiences and feelings are normal as they find their way out of their maze.

The Book We Wish We Had addresses issues head-on with raw realism, humor, and hope as Bachman tells the story of how her family navigated their son Justin's suicide attempts, medical, and mental illness. More than a memoir, this book is a resource that speaks truth to the pain that is so difficult to voice and share.

The Book We Wish We Had shares practical tools-like finding healthcare practitioners who see the child and not his/her (mis)diagnosis-and unconventional ones like learning to speak with your child in an entirely new way by using questions instead of statements. The book maps out the conversations the family had that taught their son to have with his siblings, other kids, and people in positions of authority. They show readers how they stood up for their needs and their son's as they came to realize that teachers and doctors are not all knowing and that it's important for parents to trust their hearts.