B&B’s John McCook shares a message about his son Jake’s schizophrenia and the new book written by wife Lorette and Jake to help others

Bold and beautiful perennial star, John McCook (Eric Forrester) took to his Instagram to deliver an important message and share how proud he is of his son Jake and his wife Loretta.

Jake, who was diagnosed and lived with schizophrenia, co-wrote a book with his mom called Cliffs of Schizophrenia available for pre-order at www.JakeMcCook.com.

According to the loglines for the book, “JAke was hospitalized at age 30 for anxiety, depression and paranoia. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Jake designed it (the book) with short alternating chapters between mother and son, written in a larger font for simplicity and clarity. As he was creating it, Jakes’s worst paranoid thoughts were triggered. He overcomes this by writing some chapters in a freestyle, allowing you to experience what’s inside his head with great insight and humor. Lorette reinforces these thoughts by illuminating the logic wrapped in the mother’s wisdom, as if it might prevent her son from falling into the abyss. Together, they paint a picture of today’s mental health challenges seen through stained glass and shades of grey, and yet,Cliffs of Schizophreniaris a story of resilience and lasting hope for a better life. If you are related to this brain disease or are a caring caregiver, you need to keep this book by your bedside for days when you long for normalcy. You are not alone.”

In his heartfelt video message on Instagram, John McCook began with, “I want to tell you about a book written by my wife and my son. My son Jake has schizophrenia. He and my wife, Lorette, wanted to write a book to help people understand what it’s like in a family to help each other and be understanding.”

John explained a little more about the perception of schizophrenia: “When Jake was first diagnosed with schizophrenia, it was alarming, actually, for Laurette and I, as I think it would be for anyone. There is a stigma attached to the words “schizophrenia”, and there is a very wide range of what schizophrenia means or represents. Luckily for us and Jake, he’s not in a radical place with it. It’s a manageable area, and then we immediately thought, ‘we’re going to do this’.

Photo: JakeMcCook.com

Besides, as he continued, John gave Lorette so much credit: We went to the doctor. Some of them were helpful and some weren’t really. So Laurette, and I give her all the credit for this, Laurette has taken charge of how we’re going to handle this as a family. All these years, Laurette has been not only Jake’s co-author, but also his champion. More importantly, she was a mom… the best mom he could ever have. When they decided they wanted to write a book together, I thought, ‘Well, that’s good.’ I was impressed that they wanted to do it and that Jake wanted to do it too. It took them months and months and months to put this together, and I deliberately didn’t want to read it.”

Photo: JakeMcCook.com

As a very proud father and husband, John ended his video by saying, “I haven’t read the book until recently. I was beyond impressed, I was so proud of their achievement and what they did and so proud of what I think the book offers to people who are curious about it, or who are going through this with their families. It is a useful book, wonderfully instructive, and therefore I am very proud to recommend this book.”

You can check out John’s touching video message Cliffs of Schizophrenia under.

Now tell us, what do you think about John, Lorette and Jake sharing their family struggles and how do they hope Jake and Loretta’s experiences in their new book will help other families facing similar mental health diagnoses? Share your thoughts in the comments section.