Sibling of Brothers With Schizophrenia Finds Hope Through Therapy and Connectedness

In part 1 of this 6 part video series, Lindsay Galvin Rauch shares her background of growing up in a family of 12 siblings, 6 of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia, how her mother utilized hope and knowledge to become an advocate, and how Galvin Rauch came to find therapy as a healing resource for her trauma.

Throughout the series, Psych Congress steering committee member and CEO of Orbit Health Telepsychiatry, Encino, California, Edward Kaftarian, MD, interviews Galvin Rauch about her journey from victim, to advocate, to champion.

Galvin Rauch and author Robert Kolker were one of this year's featured sessions at Psych Congress in San Antonio, Texas. Their session "Hidden Valley Road: A Story of Family, Trauma, and Hope" walked attendees through the writing of the critically acclaimed novel “Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” that centered around Galvin Rauch's family and their contribution to critical scientific discoveries in schizophrenia.

Read the transcript:

Dr Edward Kaftarian:  Welcome Psych Congress Family. I'm Dr. Edward Kaftarian. I'm on the steering committee, and I'm CEO of Orbit Health Telepsychiatry. I have the distinct pleasure and honor of meeting with my friend...We're friends now, right? [laughs]

Lindsay Galvin Rauch:  We are friends, absolutely.

Dr Kaftarian:  Lindsay Galvin Rauch, whose family is the subject of a groundbreaking and brilliant book called "Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family" by the author, Robert Kolker. I didn't want to mispronounce that name. Welcome.

Galvin Rauch:  Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here.

Dr Kaftarian:  We've been talking about the experience that you and your family had with mental illness. Can you briefly describe what the situation was in terms of, you had several brothers who had mental illness?

Galvin Rauch:  I was born in 1965, and my eldest brother is exactly 20 years older than me, almost within a few months. He became ill in '67, '68, so I was two when he had his first psychotic break and he was in college. That was the beginning of the tragedy. Bob Kolker knows the dates better than I do.

I think my next brother became ill when I was 4, then one when I was 7, and then 10, and then 13, and then 16. The course of my early childhood was an unbelievable tragedy. One of my brothers, during that time when I was seven or eight, committed suicide after having murdered his girlfriend.

Dr Kaftarian:  What can one say about that? That is a story that, first of all, unbelievable that you were able to get through that, and I have a lot of questions about that. As psychiatrists, we see some tragic things happen, but it sounds like you experienced the worst of it.

It sounds like mental illness in the family was something that you always knew through your whole life. There wasn't a period where you were free from having to think about other people having mental illness.

Galvin Rauch:  Correct.

Dr. Kaftarian:  How do you think that that shaped you as a person?

Galvin Rauch:  I was given a book by a friend that I'm reading called "Grit." I think that enduring being a victim, to begin with, because those unaffected siblings and affected siblings were the victims of the illness of the brain disorder. Each, in turn, the deep tragedy as deep as you feel pain, you can feel joy.

It's almost like it enables you to reach higher for better things. You can have no emotions and then you don't get pain or joy. It made me strong, and my mother was an amazing example of strength because she fought the system in terms of how poor the care is for her whole life.

Dr Kaftarian:  She was like a role model in some ways?

Galvin Rauch:  Absolutely, no question.

Dr Kaftarian:  I'm blown away by that that your mother, instead of falling into a victim role, she became a strong advocate, not only for your brothers and your family, but also for mental healthcare and people who do not have advocates.

Galvin Rauch:  She particularly was interested in research. That was the direction she went was into, "Let's get to the bottom of this because the schizophrenogenic mother profile that I was given in 1972 is not going to fly."

She rejected that out completely and stood up against it. I remember being in a therapy session with my entire family, and my mother, and the therapist, and we all got up and walked out because they were trying to pin it on her.

Dr Kaftarian:  Talk about blaming the victim. There are so many things about that that are so unique and a testament to your incredible strength, you and your mother and your family. As you know, we've talked too before, and I greatly admire that.

I was so moved by that because I hadn't seen that before. I've seen people be strong in the face of adversity, but in probably most cases, when you are dealing with such adversity, one can fall into the role of a victim and that's their identity.

Then, as you saw that your mother was not taking that role, it spoke to your strength, too, and it brought your strength out, which is an unbelievable gift. Could you say a few things about that?

Galvin Rauch:  My mom, and this is in the book, she would say, "You can't be heartbroken every day." Learning to not be a victim takes a lifetime of therapy, and I've had that lifetime. I have to credit my therapist, although she always says to me, "You're the one who's had to do the work."

I had a really excellent therapist whose PhD was in childhood trauma, and its potential to the cause of mental illness. I started at 18 at CU Boulder. She was a professor there. Her name is Louise Silvern. I went sometimes three times a week for years upon years upon years. She finally weaned me down to once a week, but I could still see her every day.

Dr Kaftarian:  What made you see her in the first place because a lot of people are resistant, especially people who have been traumatized, even a fraction of how you've been traumatized, often they retreat into a place of emotional numbing, and they don't want contact with anyone, and they internally focus. You did something different.

You went out, and you got help for yourself, which puts you now in the position to help others in a way that nobody else can, or a few can. How did that come to be that you made that decision to look at tragedy and turn it around and make something positive out of it?

Galvin:  I can tell you the exact day and the details of it. I had a boyfriend by the name of Tim Howard, and this is in the book, and he is the nephew of a phenomenal woman by the name of Nancy Gary. Nancy and Sam Gary are extremely active in the world of mental health. She's a child psychologist. She's on the board of Children's Hospital in Denver.

The child psychiatric hospital in Denver is named the Gary Pavilion. They were friends with my parents through the arts and humanities, and my dad was in economic development. They knew of my parents' struggles, and they brought my sister to their home to live. Then helped me go away to boarding school on the East Coast.

From the time we were nine years old, Tim and I went to summer camp together and family vacations with the Garys, and I spent tons of ski time.

There was a big tribe of kids, so there was 10 or 12 of us. The Garys kept adopting wayward children from difficult homes. That was what they did and still do. Tim and I started dating our freshman year in college. We went up to Vail to ski.

He had, for years, wanted to be my boyfriend, and he wanted to have a relationship. I had always been very standoffish with relationships because of the sexual abuse that I had endured. When I was up there that night, I broke down in tears and said, "I can't be intimate with a guy," and this is why.

He was the first person I ever told because his aunt was a psychologist, Nancy. She was there in Vail at the time. She was walking away from us down the street, and Tim said, "Aunt Nancy, Mary needs to talk to you." We sat down in her place in Vail, and she said, "We're going to get you the help you need." I'm going to cry.

Dr Kaftarian:  It's pretty inspiring to hear that.

Galvin Rauch:  She said, "Come to my office on Monday in Denver." I went to her home office, and we talked a great deal more. She helped find Louise for me. That was the beginning of my therapy. I'm grateful to the Gary family. Tim and I are still great friends. Great, great friends. He's in the book. He was interviewed for the book.

Dr Kaftarian:  I'm happy for not only you, but for the world because in that moment, what was born was a great advocate for mental health. I'm just glad that that moment happened because that led us to you sharing your story.

Galvin Rauch:  Thank you.

Lindsay Mary Galvin Rauch, is the youngest of twelve siblings, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia—becoming one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health and the subject matter of Oprah's Book Club Selection, “Hidden Valley Road - Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker. Her journey inspired her to evolve from victim, to survivor, to advocate. She is also an accomplished co-owner of a meeting and event company for nearly 30 years, where she partners with industry-leading organizations, hospitals, doctors, and other keynote experts to produce impactful functions designed to engage and educate the public.

Edward Kaftarian, MD is a nationally recognized psychiatrist and leader in the field of telepsychiatry and healthcare technology. Trained at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he is board-certified in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Dr Kaftarian has served in a variety of executive roles within the California prison system, including chief psychiatrist, senior psychiatrist, medical director, and director of pharmacy. He is the founder of California’s Statewide Prison Telepsychiatry Program, which is the largest correctional telepsychiatry program in the world. Dr Kaftarian is currently the Chairman and CEO of Orbit Health Telepsychiatry, a company that provides telepsychiatry services to jails and prisons.