Don Arsenault

The Story of Phelia Don Arsenault

Phelia Backer enters Mt. Forest Mental Hospital voluntarily following unsuccessful stays elsewhere. As she begins therapy, her hopes for getting help and moving on with life are high. But things turn terribly wrong when her doctors, eager to experiment with new treatments, force her to take multiple medications that cause severe side effects. Because Phelia resists, she is classified as involuntary, which makes her dreaded transfer to the backhouse imminent. That is when she begins to fight for her rights. Based on actual events, this novel takes the reader from the depths of mental illness to the courtroom where, with the help of the public advocate, Phelia breaks new ground, as she challenges judges to decide whether or not the cure afforded by her treatment is worse than her illness. The story rises to a surprising conclusion when Phelia?s children reveal the secret that not even her severe bouts of paranoia caused her to suspect.