Ken Duckworth, MD, is the chief medical officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and has worked with NAMI since 2003. His new self-help book, You Are Not Alone, is a guide to navigating mental illness with diverse stories from people across the United States. Detailed with poignant essays from over 125 unique individuals, this book provides “practical guidance on dealing with a vast array of mental health conditions and navigating care; research-based evidence on what treatments and approaches work; and insight and advice from renowned clinical experts and practitioners.” Beck Institute President Dr. Judith Beck was honored to contribute a chapter on CBT. 

We had the pleasure of speaking to Ken about You Are Not Alone. 

Why did you decide to create this collection? What is the importance of the essays and stories in You Are Not Alone? 

My dad was loving, playful, and spent many months at a time in a state hospital with bipolar disorder. The whole thing was a mystery to me—what was this and why couldn’t anyone talk about it?  What could be done to help?  

A kid interested in football and history isn’t the usual kind of kid who goes to medical school.  I did so to help him and to make sense of this mystery. There was so much silence, and no casseroles or cards when he returned from the state hospital. It became my life’s work to make sense of what helps people and how to break down shame and silence in mental health.  

Years later, as a psychiatrist, I often found myself looking for a practical book full of real people’s lessons and experts to help people like me and my family. Incredibly, it still didn’t exist even decades later, so I took it on. I love a good memoir, but they aren’t always very practical; textbooks are dry and are missing the human element.  

Storytelling humanizes painful and difficult experiences. The fact that real people like you and me share what they have learned adds to the power of the book. I also bring in the country’s best experts, such as Dr. Beck, to the book to give non-technical perspectives on common questions.  

Living with something is expertise and so is studying it as a career. You Are Not Alone has both.  

This is the first book created by the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI). Why did NAMI choose to publish this book before any others, and why is now the time to publish such a book? 

I was always struck that NAMI, the largest grassroots organization in American mental health, had never published a book. I had been working on this book informally in my mind for years.  Mostly I threw out the outlines. Yet the idea never left me.  

When the pandemic made mental health a “we” challenge instead of “they” challenge, I knew this was the time to take the book from concept to reality.  The new CEO of NAMI, Dan Gillison, saw the potential in the book immediately.  NAMI owns the copyright and all royalties from book sales go back into NAMI, so his support was critical.    

Who do you hope reads this book and what do you hope they get out of it? 

This book is for everyone who has a mental health concern or loves someone who does. That is a lot of people. Professionals may well enjoy the perspectives from real people. I get emails and questions every day that are directly addressed in the book.    

I wanted a relatable book with real stories and realized that including contributions from those living with mental health conditions and their families could be a new way to connect to readers looking for help.  There are over 2000 years of lived experience from the people I interviewed to share with the public. From the use of paper plates for an overwhelmed mother with bipolar disorder to the new strategy of applying CBT to question punishing voices or delusions, there are dozens of first-person lessons to share.    

I’m assuming the creation of this book took lots of time and effort. What have you learned from the experience? 

Yes, the book was a full time plus effort for a year. I dreamt about it and fretted over it.  My wife Kelly playfully asked me for occasional days when I didn’t talk about it.  Those days were the hardest for me as I was fully consumed with the idea and the execution of it.  

 A few things stand out as lessons:  

1. Altruism Is alive and well.  

Many people are ready to share their experience to help others and to make meaning of what they have been through. Of the 130 people I interviewed for the book, many told me, “If my story helps just one person, it will have all been worth it. All of it.” 

2. The Power of Peers. 

People benefit a lot from each other in the mental health and addiction world. My professional training did not prepare me for the power of peers and connections. This was such a strong force from the interviews, and I built a chapter from this idea.  

3. First Person and Family is the most complete approach.   

Many books pick either families or the first-person perspective, but I think in reading the book, families can learn from the first-person perspectives and vice versa. As with the combination of first-person stories and traditional experts, multiple perspectives are a richer tapestry than either alone. 

4. If you want to build something you never have before, create a team.    

The team at NAMI helped me a great deal and I could not have completed it alone. 

You Are Not Alone will be available on September 20th, 2022. The first official book from NAMI, all royalties will go to the organization to assist in its mission to provide advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives. 

Read reviews of You Are Not Alone and find out where to buy the book here.