Carol
Hamilton
takes us to hell and back,
helpless against the demons
battling for her husband’s sanity.
Hitchhiking to Madness
In Hitchhiking to Madness, the reader experiences a 1970’s hitchhiker’s life on the road juxtaposed with a husband’s terrifying descent into madness. Hamilton survived sexual assault and attempted murder to become a celebrated Duke physician-scientist. She encourages readers to find courage in their unplanned detours ―it’s never too late to redirect one’s path.
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Praise for the Book
Hamilton’s friends and colleagues are astonished after learning her story. Others relish her grit, resilience and perseverance. Few can stop turning the pages once they start Hamilton’s memoir Hitchhiking to Madness.
“Hitchhiking to Madness captures the experiences and flavor of the 1970s through Carol Hamilton’s eyes in a hitchhiking journey across America. Modern readers will relish the opportunity to journey alongside Hamilton. Imagine Kerouac’s classic On the Road—but delivered with more self-examination. Why madness? Because the major insight and discovery relate to her husband Jeff’s mental illness, which Hamilton explores during the course of their journey. When a loved one becomes unrecognizable due to schizophrenia, what does a family do? In this case, experiences that lay far from the familiar spark of discovery, recovery, and new approaches to life that prove not just healing, but revealing.”
— D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“I first crossed paths with Dr. Carol Hamilton in 1996, when I was a medical student at Duke. She modeled compassion and humanity for my patient with AIDS. Now, reading Hitchhiking to Madness, I am astonished and humbled by Carol’s compassion, wisdom, humanity, and clarity. As a practicing internist-psychiatrist I appreciate the time and effort she puts into describing her experience as her husband became more and more ill with schizophrenia, and as an observer of a disordered healthcare system I appreciate the light she sheds on the difficulties patients and their loved ones experience trying to obtain effective treatment. As a medical educator, I cannot speak highly enough of this book. I think it should be required reading for all seeking a career in clinical medicine.”
— Jane P. Gagliardi, MD, MHS, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Medicine
“Hitchhiking to Madness tells a compelling story with raw, honest, personal insight into the world of severe and persistent mental illness forced upon a naive twenty-something, just out to make the world a better place and find meaning through religion and spirituality. Readers go along for the ride of personal discovery, struggling, along with the author, to figure out what is happening to her good-hearted husband, and where the dividing line is between spirituality and psychosis. I recommend this book to all readers, especially to those involved with the world of mental health.”
— Gordon Lipscomb, MSW, Clinical Social Worker, retired
The Author, Carol Hamilton
Mother, grandmother, physician, mentor, colleague, wife, friend, painter, writer, birder, native plant gardener, conservationist. Carol is a woman of broad interests and keen focus. She’s genuine and warm, but make no mistake, she will say what she thinks.
Dr. Carol Hamilton graduated from college in San Antonio, Texas despite a harrowing first marriage, chronicled in her memoir, Hitchhiking to Madness.
She remarried and moved with her young daughter to Utah, graduated from medical school at the University of Utah, and completed training at Duke University Medical Center where she spent the bulk of her career doing patient care, research and teaching focused on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. She has over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications and awards from around the world.
She is now Emeritus Professor at Duke helping younger doctors find their calling in the field of Infectious Diseases. She writes, paints and is active in conservation and birding. She and her husband have four children and three grandchildren between them and live in North Carolina.
Carol's Blog
Enjoy more stories about Carol’s life growing up in San Antonio, Texas in the 1950’s and 1960’s, happy times before Jeff developed chronic mental illness, and random reflections about things she’s passionate about.
