Leaving Cloud 9Leaving Cloud 9

Describes how Rick Sylvester, after enduring a childhood of poverty and abuse, struggled through adulthood until he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and shares how he was able to overcome the odds to live a rewarding life.
For Rick Sylvester, living in Cloud 9, a American Southwest trailer park, meant enduring his mother's drunken fits and drug-induced stupors-- until she committed suicide. Rick seemed doomed to follow in her footsteps, stumbling through unemployment and divorce, using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. When he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he turned his life around and today is a happy husband and father. How did this happen? Rick's answer: "It was the Lord." Now he shares a message of hope to those who are drowning from an undeserved childhood. -- adapted from jacket