Most people know Joe Pantoliano from his memorable roles in "The Sopranos," "The Goonies, The Matrix, The Fugitive, "and" Risky Business," but the Emmy-winning artist has another important role--as an outspoken advocate for smashing the stigma of mental illness, or mental "dis-ease" as he prefers to call it. As a kid in Hoboken, New Jersey, he was just "Joey Pants," the son of a fiercely controlling, schizophrenic mother. As he grew up, Joey always knew he was different. "It was as if I was born with a huge hole inside of me," he writes. Much later in life he would be diagnosed with clinical depression, and now he has a message for the millions of people who suffer from mental illness, and for the friends and family who care for them: you are not alone."
Asylum" is the story of Joe's Hollywood success, his undiagnosed mental illness, and substance abuse, and how all three led to his awareness, diagnosis, recovery, and public activism. Picking up where his first memoir, "Who's Sorry Now," left off, this unflinching memoir will resonate with victims of mental illness and others who have witnessed its devastating effects and will give all his readers understanding and hope for the future.