One Step at a Time

About the Book

Melissa Bradford is a wife, mother and woman who battles one of the many forms of mental illness, anxiety disorders. From her injured son to the fall of her marriage, Melissa is struggling with her own fears and uncertainties as to whether she can ever become normal again. She encounters three other individuals who battle with mental illness themselves. Through the eyes of these people, the reader is taken into their world and the daily challenges they experience.

Beth, who is agoraphobic and has not left her house for many months, is finally forced to face her fears. For the first time, she ventures to a psychiatrist in desperate need of help. By chance meeting, she meets Melissa who seems to understand what she is dealing with.

Ruth has obsessive-compulsive disorder and is deathly afraid of germs. As a widow, she takes care of herself and is a no-nonsense woman. What she comes to find out will test her spirit and her will.

Mike has nightmares about that fateful night. The night his life changed forever. Now dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, he battles with himself as to why. In order for Mike to live and love again, he has to come to grips with his identity and see the beauty in life.

Melissa realizes she is not the only one out there who is pleading for help, praying for an end to her suffering. What Melissa ultimately comes to grips with, is her own fears about her family, her mother and most of all, herself. Melissa decides she will not be a victim to mental illness when she takes it upon herself to finally break the barriers of misunderstandings and distorted views about anxiety, and mental illness in general, and eventually help those people who can't help themselves

About the Author

Julia Nielsen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Having moved around a number of times while growing up, she knows the fears of being the new kid on the block. Julia is now raising her three children with her husband John in Gilbert, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. She has been writing as a hobby off and on since she was fourteen. She has written short stories and poetry for a number of Internet e-zines such as the-vu, MomWriters and The Literary Review. She also enjoys making writing contributions to Themestream. One Step at a Time is Julia's first novel.