When a wall is there for anyone, the opportunity comes for anyone Susan Phipps; Alaska During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? I am a very motivated and assertive person. I advocate for myself and others. I consider myself a recovery educator. I believe people need…
Taking Chances in Recovery Pat Hayes; Springfield, IL During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? Yes. A crisis for me involves hearing mean voices, paranoia, having false beliefs, anxiety, and sleep difficulty. They were scary, but I noticed that each time after I began to feel better…
Making New Sense of the World By Marylou In what ways have you found psychiatric medication(s) harmful, if any? Through taking them and being prescribed them, I was under the impression that I was mentally sick and that this sickness lied solely within me, which is a flat-out lie. I am a survivor of childhood…
Creator of My Life By Cynthia During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? Yes. Once I eliminated what I call brain fog and found mental health practitioners that I felt a connection with, I was able to not only see a chance for recovery, but develop…
I’m the Architect and Builder By Elizabeth During your mental health care, have you often felt hopeful about your chance of getting better? Yes. There have been many times I felt hopeful. Sometimes, that hope was enhanced by compassionate treatment by mental health professionals. Dialectical Behavior Therapy is the ONE treatment that offered me hope…
Part of the Human Condition By Jennifer Hill Has a mental health provider ever told you that you could not reach a personal goal because of your psychiatric diagnosis (for example, education, career, independent housing, relationship, children, etc.)? Yes. I was told I could not complete college. I was not encouraged to have goals except…
Graduate of The School of Hard Knocks Matti Salminen; Brattleboro, VT In my life I have been knocked down many times. I have been homeless, incarcerated and diagnosed with a serious mental illness. I have been pushed to the very edge of what I can take. I have even attempted suicide and thought at times I…
I Got Better and Recovered From Psychiatric Abuse Melinda James Psychiatrists’ diagnoses are not always correct. Labeling people as schizophrenic is a serious business, especially if they are not mentally ill, much less schizophrenic. I was labeled as depressed after breaking up with my first boyfriend when I was 17 years old. I had been…
Try To Change Negligent or Abusive Mental Health Programs Johnny; Mental Health Survivor Long years of isolation, depression and psychosomatic complaints without adequate care led to increasing despair and a need for emergency psychiatric care and my ending up at state hospital. It was 1960 and I was sixteen years old. The phenothiazine tranquilizer revolution…
Little By Little Things Will Change Jennifer Morris; Rhinebeck, NY Part 1: I am 51 years old now and have suffered from severe major depression. Depression that paralyzed me for several years of my life where I never married, never had children, and had a hard time holding a job. In 2009, I was hospitalized because the…