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John Bkila Sub-Editor jbkila@oakvillebeaver.com Author pens book as message of hope for parents Angela Tsounis hopes her book acts as a `shared experience' between parents of children diagnosed with mental illness by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Artscene 15 | Friday, January 29, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" For many parents with children diagnosed with a mental illness, the feeling of loneliness and isolation can swiftly follow in deciding how to move forward. That's how Oakville's Angela Tsounis described it when her daughter, Christina, experienced a psychotic break and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 17. Four years later, the 25-year resident and author has penned a book of interviews as a way to enlighten other parents like herself and help make them feel less alone. "When she (Christina) was released (from hospital), I remember feeling completely ill at ease, not knowing what was next, as far as parenting this child was concerned," Tsounis said. "Christina (now 21) is a big proponent of this project. If she wasn't comfortable with all this, I wouldn't have taken it on." Titled Different from the Other Kids -- A Book of Interviews for Parents of Challenging Children, the book took three years to put together and includes interviews with parents, psychologists, Tsounis' daughter and people who have grown up with and continue to live successful lives with mental challenges. Tsounis said the catalyst behind the book -- her first -- was when she found very little material for parents to learn how to work with a child diagnosed with a mental disorder. She spoke with psychiatrists, social workers and the few people in her community she felt comfortable enough sharing her story with and said she found very little support out there for parents. "I was frustrated and very isolated for a long time because it's not something you could talk about and if you do, there's still a great stigma attached to it," said Tsounis. "So, that's when I started putting this together... tell the story and try and talk to other parents." But what the local author found was that she was "re-traumatizing herself" every time she went to tell her story. "I had done a couple of interviews with psychologists on the subject, just because I wanted to have tips for parents in the book," she said. "When I started to do that, I thought, `this I could do. Maybe I can tell the story and help parents, but through the voices of other people that can contribute and give a wider band of information.'" Tsounis said she decided her book would be more of a way to give parents an idea of what mental illness can look like now for their child and, with a little help, what it could look like down the road. Meant to act as a "shared experience," Tsounis hopes the parents she interviewed in her book will be able to help coach others on what's working for them. "The shared experience helps make parents feel less isolated," she explained. "That was the big problem for me. I couldn't talk to anyone. No one could really relate to what I was experiencing. That loneliness and that feeling of being so by yourself on your journey of parenting can be really a big challenge, for those who need that social contact and support from others." Oakville author Angela Tsounis, at right, stands with daughter Christina Tsounis during the recent book launch of Angela's first book: Different from the Other Kids -- A Book of Interviews for Parents of Challenging Children. | photo by Justin Greaves ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @ halton_photog or www.facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) The shared experience (of the book) helps make parents feel less isolated. That was the big problem for me. I couldn't talk to anyone. No one could really relate to what I was experiencing. That loneliness and that feeling of being so by yourself on your journey of parenting can be really a big challenge.... Angela Tsounis Oakville author Tsounis said she wants parents to know not to give up and there is promising work being done on the professional level and internally by the children themselves who are learning to live positively with their diagnoses. "There's a hopeful message there that I really need the parents to know, that a lot of these kids are able to come out of it with the right the resources and supports," she noted. "Parents are the frontline workers for this and I wanted to try and support them as best I could." Through her interviews, Tsounis said she has enough material to produce two more books she is currently working on. Both are on the same subject material, but with a different set of interviews from different people, such as the police department, lawyers and holistic practitioners who offer alternative treatments. The Oakville mom noted for parents to have material out there that share stories of similar experiences is "everything." "I think the fact that parents can read something, even if it's a one-way conversation... to be able to know that they're not by themselves, they're not alone. That their children are not all that unusual from other kids," said Tsounis. "I wanted to make sure that parents got some fortitude out of it, that they knew they weren't by themselves. I think it stabilizes you and you realize that you and your child can go on.... If you have another parent's story where they've tried something and it's worked... even a slight improvement in a child's behaviour or mental state, can help us to keep going," she added. Tsounis' book is available on Amazon.ca and as a podcast on iTunes.