TOO MUCH chronicles life on the brink—the brutal reality of medical residency, the toll of family dysfunction, and the harrowing battle for sanity—from navigating professional gaslighting and personal betrayal to confronting the depths of mental illness and addiction in a quest for truth and freedom.
“An uncompromising probe into the medical industry fused with an honest account of mental illness.” —Kirkus Reviews
TOO MUCH opens with Cindy, a medical student in Hawaii, on the cusp of a dream career and a promising marriage. But the illusion shatters when her fiancé, Paul, faces a court-martial, exposing a hidden past and forcing Cindy to confront unsettling truths about trust, loyalty, and the pervasive culture of an unforgiving system. The revelation of his conviction, followed by the tragic loss of her father and her own escalating struggles as a resident, plunges Cindy into a spiral of self-doubt and paranoia.
This wasn’t the first time life had delivered a harsh blow. From a childhood marked by a “half-built house” and an unpredictable mother, to an earlier suicide attempt at fourteen, Cindy learned to compartmentalize. In TOO MUCH, she peels back the layers of a life lived striving for external validation, revealing the inner chaos of bullying, sham peer review, and systemic gaslighting. As a female, minority, and underrepresented physician, she grapples with the unique pressures of identity in a demanding profession. The weight of her journey—which includes therapy, art, and journaling as vital lifelines—forces her to confront deep-seated mental health challenges and battle addiction.
Told with unflinching honesty and a physician’s keen eye, TOO MUCH is Dr. Cindy Lee Neighbors’ gripping story of fighting for integrity in a system that often prioritizes optics over ethics. From the frantic pace of the operating room to the chilling reality of a psychiatric ward, Neighbors confronts her demons, unearths buried truths, and ultimately reclaims her voice.
