The Day the Voices Stopped: A Schizophrenic's Journey from Madness to Hope

I read this book in college for my psych rotation. And, I’ve gone on to read it several times more over the years because it’s an amazing book that will give a heartbreaking insight in to mental illness, schizophrenia, from the sufferer’s prospective. It follows Ken’s story of how his mental illness robbed him of decades of his life and his time in asylums and on the streets. You won’t regret reading this book.

Ken Steele had his first psychotic break replete with auditory hallucinations in October of 1962 when he was 14. Considering the world's collective madness involving the threat of nuclear war and having children cower under desks in schools, madness abounded in those days. Ken Steele's was sadly adolescent onset pychosis as opposed to the mass hysteria that was the order of the day. He was first hospitalized following that episode. Steele's mental illness included paranoia; he feared going out in public and thought others were talking about him. When Steele's brother Joe was born in 1964, he felt further alienated from his family. On January 2, 1966 Steele left his home for good. Sadly, he served time in and out of hospitals for the next 15 years. In 1974, one door opened. Steele, calling home from an institution out of state received his first invitation home in nearly a decade. Sadly, this visit did not pan out and he was back in the throes of mental forces he could not control. In 1991, Steele's luck changed for the better. He was well matched with a Brooklyn therapist named Rita Seiden who responded to him with compassion. I like the way she explained his mental illness to him and treated him with respect at all times. He was referred to a Dr. Casimir in 1994 who prescribed Risperdal. Steele began taking it in November of 1994 and on May 3, 1995, his voices stopped. For the first time since 1962 he was free of auditory hallucinations. While working with Dr. Casimir, Steele took up the banner of securing the vote for mentally ill persons. His contention that "mentally ill does not mean mentally incompetent" was on target. In late 1994, he began working tirelessly to secure that right for people with mental illnesses. In the late 1990s, Steele became a publisher of "New York City Voices: A Consumer Journal for Mental Health Advocacy" and an editor of a monthly newsletter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and spoke on behalf of the National Mental Health Association's "Partners In Care." One thing that comes through quite plainly in this book is that Ken Steele was a truly good man. A truly good man. This book will touch many hearts. Sadly, Steele never met his brother's children. His voice was stilled on October 7, 2000. This book might make you cry, but Ken Steele will certainly inspire you. His was a life etched in pain, emphasized by his compassion and his tireless quest to help others in his shoes. Reading this book will leave an indelible impression on all readers. God bless Ken Steele.

As a person who was also diagnosed with schizophrenia, (though I never heard voices), I found this a fascinating account of another person's journey from breakdown to recovery. The greatest strength of this book is the way in which the authors interwove the tyranny of the voices Ken Steele heard with the events of his life. The book gave me a clear understanding of how nightmarish it must be to live with a constant chorus of psychotic voices harassing you and insulting you from morning until night. Next, what struck me powerfully was the completely inhumane treatment Mr. Steele received from the mental health establishment. During the initial months of his first hospitalization Mr. Steele was locked up in isolation and given so much medication he couldn't move, not even to go to the bathroom. He peed and pooped where he was and attendants hosed him off to get him clean. Subsequently, in other hospitalizations he continued to be subjected to serious overdoses of medication. He was locked in seclusion rooms for extended periods of time, threatened and ultimately gang raped by other patients, and at one point locked in a closet for days on end. During the course of this book Ken Steele speculates that the cause of his illness was entirely biochemical and that his recovery took place solely as a consequence of the new medications he took later on in his life. But I felt that there was no way that his family life could not have had some influence on the outbreak and course of his illness. From the beginning it is clear that his parents have little interest in him, and that he is largely being brought up by his grandmother. When it became clear that he was suffering from a severe mental illness, his parents did nothing about it. And when he later ran into trouble and ended up hospitalized, his parents didn't even bother to visit him or concern themselves with his situation even though they were fully informed of what was happenening to him. When it came to Ken Steele's recovery, medication may have been a part of it, but it is indisputable that before he decided to take the medication, he had come to the point where he made the choice to be responsible for himself, to stop playing games and lying to himself and other people. In other accounts of people with mental illness, this moment of decision, the decision to take personal responsibility for oneself, is pivotal to any meaningful kind of recovery. And Ken made that recovery, and more than just recoverying, he went on to advocate for psychiatric patients such as himself and play a significant role in improving the lives of others. Suffering greatly, struggling greatly, recovering heroically, Ken Steele is without self pity, and through this book, continuing to give to others, even after his death.

Steele's book is one of the best I've seen on the subject. He tells us an insider's view of schizophrenia that is rarely portrayed so accurately. He does not tout a particular drug or a particular doctor, therapy, or procedure, which I feel is important because so many times an author credits a "miracle cure" for their recovery. There are many treatments for this illness and the appropriate one may differ from one person to another. I found I could identify with Ken in his quest to start living after thirty years of being out of commission, his drive to unite people with mental illnesses and improve conditions for us all. After I went through 18 years of mental illness and recovered, it seems there is a lot to do to make up for lost time. The memory of Ken Steele will stay with the reader for a long time, and so will his message.

The Day the Voices Stopped is a shockingly realistic autobiography of someone with severe mental illness. The voices or auditory hallucinations are so realistic and terrifying that the reader wonders how Ken Steele could have survived at all. In addition, many people with severe mental illness have problems with homelessness and incarceration and Ken's story is no exception. It is tragic that 32 years of his life were consumed by this illness. I personally knew Steele and he never spoke of his voices, nor did I ask him. He was a phenomenal success in Hawaii despite his problems, and started the consumer organization, United Self-Help, in 1984, which still exists to this day. During some periods, he was able to function despite his illness. The reading is a must for mental health professionals and also for those in recovery from mental illness.

I knew Ken Steele for two years as his young assistant. I witnessed the pain he went through while writing this book, reliving a journey filled with mistreatment and neglect. Like Ken, I am a paranoid schizophrenic. He gave me hope when I was hopeless in the mental hospital and asked me to work for him. The voices he heard were different from the voices I heard that no one else could hear, trademarks of our mental illness. Steele's voices commanded him to do the unspeakable. They were with him night and day for over 30 years, most of his life. It was remarkable the day his voices stopped because he wasted no time and began his work as a legendary advocate for us, the mentally ill. The Day the Voices Stopped is a personal and realistic account of what it's like to live with schizophrenia. It's inspiring for all readers as we can see through Ken Steele that the disease is treatable and recovery is possible.