Living with Mr. Fahrenheit

Living with Mr. Fahrenheit

Reality sometimes does not set in until it smacks and dabs you when you are most vulnerable. What happens when your entire world is lifted, turns you around in all directions and you learn a harsh reality about the person in your life for many decades? Entering the world of Lisa Beecher we are going with her focused on the changes in her husband’s demeanor and personality leading up to her becoming his caregiver and the diagnosis of bipolar. 

As the memoir opens we meet the author and her husband as a life-changing decision was in process. Lisa decided to have her husband who appeared to be experiencing a psychotic break admitted to a psychiatric hospital which was not the perfect fit for the staff and atmosphere too, requiring an immediate discharge to another hospital hoping the staff will be different. With two of his former police officer friends taking the ride along with Lisa, you can feel the tension, anger, and hoping their future would not be as bumpy but within this memoir, many moments will highlight both.

Jamie has many unique episodes leading from just Depression to a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder. Flashing back to how they met, their interactions, and then his PTSD, drinking issues, nightmares, and even their separation, the author relates these issues in detail and how they culminated in his being admitted to a psychiatric hospital and then moved to another. 

Reading ahead to how to impact their family mainly her kids and her mental health, many chapters highlight his journey through many phases, the various medications, the successes and failures, his hallucinations, and more. 

Emotions run high and fear encompasses her daily as his actions and words are often unpredictable and require immediate help. 

Many different positions in law enforcement and Jamie with numerous setbacks due to medication, his condition, and refusal to adhere to the medical programs and advice of the doctors he needed to listen to. How would he remain on the force and what happens when he’s sleep deprived? Would he consider leaving the force? Then a breakthrough as he agreed to take a test to see where he stands intellectually. Test-taking is hard if you have ADHD and verbal tests not written are the answer. 

Lisa was about to have her life-altering nightmare and it would take time and strength to handle her disability and another shock. 

Refusing to take medication, is an ultimatum he has to deal with where will we find them in the end? What about their children and family?

A dramatic account of critical situations on many levels that would impact any family, anyone enduring having to help a husband or family member with mental illness, author, caregiver, and law enforcement officer and police chief, Liss Beecher takes us on a lifelong journey still in progress. A story of hope, loyalty, and a man whose life is like a scale that goes from freezing when things are dire to a boiling point when explosive to hopefully sonewhere in a comfortable temperature as we take Lisa’s journey Living with Mr. Fahrenheit.

Fran Lewis just reviews