Mania

A Memoir:  A woman's journey from mental illness to federal prison. "What shames us, what we most fear to tell, does not set us apart from others; it binds us together if only we can take the risk to speak it."  Starhawk

Follow the journey of the author, Janie Renee Cochran, through the onset of depression and mania to an international crime of greed which lands her in a federal women's prison.  In her memoir, the author chronicles her struggle with mental illness and the crime which it led to.  This is a must-read for anyone who has suffered from a mental disorder or sho knows someone who has.  It takes the reader from the world of international au pairs to a federal court system in which mental illness is chargeable and punishable as a crime.  It's about redemption and how the author finds unlikely friends in that strange world behind bards.  Through Janie's memoir, the reader gets a glimpse into what life is truly like in a federal women's prison.  The story is well told through the eyes of a typical, middle-class soccer mom who had to leave her three young children and husband behind, and how she tried to put her life back together after her release.