Mission Statement
What’s Wrong, Mick? is a sweet story about a young mouse who talks to his friends about when things don’t feel good in his brain, things that seem invisible to his friends. They listen and they care, and it’s important that he can say these things out loud and ask for their help. This children's book was written seven months before Emma Soorikian, the most creative and empathetic soul, lost her life at 20 years old after a long battle with a serious psychiatric illness. As Emma’s mother, I [Karen Soorikian] vowed to bring her book and her message to life. This website is a way of adding an additional layer to the message of the book – to help parents help their child when they do find their voice.
About “What’s Wrong, Mick?”
Read about a mother’s mission to understand her daughter’s illness that took her life, and the efforts taken to publish a book her daughter wrote seven months before her passing.
The story of Emma
Learn more about who Emma was how she lived her creative, passionate life. But also get a glimpse into her psychiatric condition and the lifelong journey of strange physical and mental symptoms she was met with.
A note to Parents
Learn more about how groundbreaking research shows that chronic infections or immune system disfunction and inflammation from infections can play a large role in psychiatric symptoms, especially when that infection occurs in childhood.