Local author writes about overcoming mental illness

Bob Bienvenu, author, weighlifting champion, and an Acadiana Open Channel TV on-air personality, has written an autobiography, “From Light to Darkness to Glory,” the story of his descent from a Mayberry-style childhood in postwar St. Martinville into schizophrenia, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and a long string of menial jobs.
Drafted into the Army and on a fast track to the Vietnam War, Bienvenu experienced psychiatric disorder in boot camp.
“My predisposition for mental illness combined with the harsh training conditions and treatment from the drill sergeants, led to my nervous breakdown,” he said. “I told the psychologists that I was hearing voices and having delusions that people were out to get me, and other outrageous perceptions that in my reality was as real as I knew.”
Given a medical discharge, Bienvenu reentered civilian life at the height of the psychedelic era.
“I felt like I belonged,” he says. “We started wearing bell-bottoms and paisley shirts, and the girls started wearing short-shorts and mini-skirts. We felt like we were one big family. I had found the feeling of inclusion I had lost at home.
“I started smoking marijuana and taking LSD. I even went to a pop festival with 50,000 people all doing drugs and listening to music. A couple of my friends and I were inspired by the drug culture and started growing marijuana in the Atchafalaya Basin. We were arrested there and spent 30 days in jail. It was a really dumb thing to do, but there it was.
“For the next 20 years, I’d go from job to job with a broken heart. I had no girlfriend and no one took me seriously. People spoke down to me and ignored me, and that was very hard.”
The rest of the story begins with a religious conversion with the help of City Councilman Mike Fusilier.
“With Mike’s help, I was able to get a job working with special needs students at Acadiana High School, and that remains the best and most fulfilling job I’ve ever held.”
It was not a straight line upward. There were twists and turns and setbacks, but positive things continued to happen.
“I started my television program, Insight Into Mental Health, with my friend Jamie Ballew I met at a mental health support group and we became good friends.
“At about the same time, I started seriously competing in weightlifting events. Jamie and I went to compete in the United States Power Lifting (USAPL) National Championships in Wisconsin and Texas, and I came out third in both. I also participated in Senior Olympics and the World Association of Bench and Dead Lifting (WABDL), the American Powerlifting Federation (APF) and the Cajun Hard Core Power Lifting events, and I would win medals whenever I competed – usually first place.”
He was eventually joined on TV by co-hosts Richard Phelps and Nellie Harrington, with whose help he went from 198 pounds to 181 pounds to, eventually, to 165 pounds, a weight class where he has won 25 world titles, and set 35 official and unofficial state records, as well as three unofficial world records.
Bienvenu will be signing his book Saturday, March 14, at Planet Nutrition, 4660 Johnson St., in Lafayette, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can call him at (337) 258-9425.
“From Light to Darkness to Glory” is $22, $26 with shipping. It was edited by Sally Donlon, assistant dean of Liberal Arts, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.