A Psychiatric Residential Treatment Center Like the Jackson Center

After spending a year and a half at a psychiatric residential treatment center like The Jackson Center, Becca Pava, Best Selling author of When One Door Closes and Was I Ever Normal and host of the popular blog, Chronically Alive, was inspired to write her third novel, Changing Destiny’s Destiny. 

When talking about her experiences at the Jackson Center, Becca gets a faraway look in her eyes as she flashes back to her painful and traumatic experiences.  The Jackson Center is based on a real psychiatric treatment center Becca lived at when she was Destiny’s age.  In fact, the whole novel is the most closely based on her life out of all the books she has written.

A Non-Responsive Psychiatric Residential Treatment Center

In Changing Destiny’s Destiny, the main character, 17-year-old Destiny, suffers from a rare genetic condition called “Syndrome XX” which makes Destiny incapable of aging past eight years old, physically and psychologically despite having a genius-level IQ.  Syndrome XX also causes childhood-onset schizoaffective disorder and severe medical complications, like her dysautonomia and gastroparesis which leave her dependent on IV nutrition, hydration, and medication.

Becca struggles with these exact same issues.  Just like The Jackson Center never understood Destiny’s disabilities, the psychiatric residential treatment center Becca was at from ages 16 to 18 never understood her issues either.

This Livestream will go in-depth to all the nitty gritty details of both the book and my experiences living in the psychiatric residential treatment center that the book is based on, as well as my medical issues, my psychiatric issues, and my developmental issues.

How to Interact With the Livestream

Once you sign up for the event, you will also have a chance to join the discussion posts which are also on the event page.  You can use the discussion posts to make any comments or ask any questions you want to be answered during the Livestream.  Your questions or comments can be about anything you can dream up in your head related to the book, mental or physical illness, schizoaffective disorder, gastroparesis, Syndrome XX, dysautonomia, my personal life, my other books, my writing process, or anything else at all.  If you are wondering it, chances are, other people are probably wanting the same questions answered as well, so please speak up.

I can’t wait to see you at the event.  Share this event with your friends and family.  Together we will spread awareness around the atrocities of the mental health system for children and adolescents in the US today and be the voice for change.