Martha’s Vineyard Community Services will formally break ground Friday on construction of a new building that will include a wing named for author William Styron and his widow, poet Rose Styron, who still lives in the couple’s Vineyard Haven home.
The William and Rose Styron Center for Wellness and Recovery will be announced at a ceremony beginning at 3 p.m. on the community services campus.
Mr. Styron was a longtime seasonal Vineyarder, and the award-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner. He also made literary history in 1990 with the publication of Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.
Tracing Mr. Styron’s battles with clinical depression after he stopped drinking in the 1980s, the best-selling book opened up public dialogue on a subject that had traditionally been taboo: mental illness.
Adapted from a 1989 essay in Vanity Fair magazine, the memoir has helped immeasurably to destigmatize mental illness in America, said psychiatrist Dr. Charles Silberstein, medical director for Island Counseling at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.
“People still come into my practice and talk to me about Darkness Visible. It’s really quite remarkable,” Dr. Silberstein told the Gazette this week.
To be built by South Mountain Company, the new center will be more welcoming for clients and staff alike, Dr. Silberstein said.
“People who come in there will have a sense of being in a building that’s respectful and kind,” he said.
Naming the new center for the Styrons acknowledges both the groundbreaking nature of Darkness Visible and Ms. Styron’s role in supporting and caring for her husband, Dr. Silberstein said.
“This is a family illness [that] affects family members as much as it does the people that are suffering,” he said. “Rose was an incredibly devoted and kind partner through Bill’s mental illness.”
Gary Foster, who chairs the capital campaign for community services, said donors contributed more than $1.5 million in the Styrons’ name, out of about $17 million for the entire building.
“We had a fabulous response,” said Mr. Foster, who joined Dr. Silberstein in praising Mr. Styron’s willingness to discuss his mental illness.
“He was public about it because he wanted people to understand that if you feel unhealthy or there’s issues... you need be able to ask for help,” Mr. Foster said. “Too many people have gone without care because they were afraid to publicize that they have a problem.”
At her home on Vineyard Haven harbor Wednesday, Ms. Styron recalled the grim days and nights of her husband’s illness at a time when mental health woes were considered dirty laundry, or worse.
Immediately after he stopped drinking, she said, Mr. Styron developed a sweet tooth and started eating their children’s candy.
But the first real sign of trouble was when his publisher told her, in confidence, that her husband’s writing had gone so far downhill that it couldn’t be printed.
“Then I began to read what he was writing, which I hadn’t... and then I began trying to get him medical help,” Ms. Styron said, recounting a tale that may resonate with others who have sought help for their troubled loved ones: “The first doctor turned out to be... wrong and gave us quite bad advice,” she said.
“[Then] we got a really good doctor, and we were on our way to treatment and recovery — ups and downs, yes, but finally, lots and lots of ups,” Ms. Styron said.
When community services leaders gather Friday for the shovel ceremony, Ms. Styron said she will be there with the couple’s children.
“I think he would be honored and very pleased,” she said. “I feel the same way. Very honored that it has our name, and very pleased that there’s going to be a place that’s easily accessible to those who need it.”
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