Mental Illness and Domestic Abuse

Recently I've been reading a book entitled, "Wild Roses," by Deb Cavalleti. Being the type of person who often reads many books in a short amount of time, generally I choose my books based upon the covers. (Not the brightest idea, but sometimes the most practical.) Seeing the title of, "Wild Roses," I had automatically assumed that the book would be fluff, a fast read with no actual intellectual value. After about the first few pages though, I became aware that I was in fact truly misguided.

Although I'm only about halfway through the book, each page is painted with a vision of rising tension because of a mental illness in the step father. Everyday I read more and more of the book, I expect something big to happen, some sort of domestic abuse to arise out of the mental illness. This got me thinking more about the topic of domestic abuse, is it purely out of an irrational act? Or is there more behind it, such as mental illness?

According to http://parentingabusedkids.wordpress.com, a database that has many fact regarding abuse, it does have a direct correlation. I had never really thought about domestic abuse on a much more finite spectrum. But when I did, I realized that someone wouldn't just randomly be abusing someone because they felt like it, atleast I'd hope not.

I would highly encourage reading this book for many reasons, not only is it your typical sappy romance, but that aspect does not over take the entire book. There is real meaning to it, it's not just fluff. It also gives you and idea of what it would be like to live with someone strongly from a mental illness. Life isn't just fun and games for everyone, real people deal with real issues.