by Deborah in California

From childhood, I vividly remember sitting on top of my shoes inside of the closet, as I hid away and cried. I would cry for hours, if no one caught me and yelled at me to stop. Sadness was my existence; I did not have the words to articulate my experience. Almost every day, I went through an inexplicable pain; not only did I suffer with depression, but also I was being sexually abused, and I did not have the words to voice my experience. Living in a small, rural town during the 70's meant that family secrets prevailed. A book about molestation did not exist in the town library.

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by Charlotte in Kentucky

Even though I had only a high school education, I was very fortunate to find a career that I loved. I got a divorce when my son was six-months-old and for 20 years held down two jobs simultaneously as a court reporter and legal assistant. I also did some fashion modeling and TV commercials.

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by Morgan in Illinois

As far back as I can remember, mental illness has affected my life. My diagnosis, like many, is one of many disorders. I can remember the fights my parents had because my father, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, refused to seek help but self-medicated with drugs, alcohol, and countless women. My mother overcompensated by keeping an immaculate home and starving herself to meet the unattainable expectations of my father...always with a smile on her face. Even at 4-years old, I felt like there was something I should be doing differently, that it was my job to fix everything, and mostly, that it was all my fault in the first place.

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by Karen in Missouri

This month marks the one year anniversary of my nervous breakdown. While the journey is certainly not over, I thought this would be a good time to send a message about it. There are several reasons for the message - one is to make one more attempt to convince the jerks that don't believe in mental diseases that IT IS REAL. Another is for awareness. Perhaps I will find the words to describe things that other sufferers like me have been trying to find all along. Perhaps, even if just for a moment, I will help someone else feel like they are not alone. At any rate, a year ago at this time I had hit rock bottom.

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by Renee in Pennsylvania

My search for the meaning of life began at the age of 14 when drugs and alcohol became a way of life for me to cope with the years of abuse and the nightmarish memories of my past. I became a high school drop-out and ran away from home, looking for love in all the wrong places. I had been consumed body, soul and spirit by overexposure to alcohol, drugs and sexual abuse by the time I was 17.

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by Lily in California

At the age of 35 I had a full-blown manic-depressive breakdown that brought me to a complete non-functioning state. I was then a mother of two. Much earlier, the first signs of bipolar disorder began to appear; my first experiences with it set the tone for what was to come.

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by Jim in New Jersey

I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I then moved to Florida with my wife and three children. By the 2001, I had been married for ten years. I wrestled with an obsession for many years.

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by Greg in BC

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 20. This was after my mother died of cancer. I was working full-time and attending college but couldn't cope. I began hearing demonic voices and I was very paranoid, believing aliens were sent by God to abduct me. I was hospitalized and was put on different meds that didn't help, but eventually, we found the right combination of meds. I lived for years in four different boarding homes, and in the last eight years I have finished a BA in English, took Creative Writing courses and I've had two novels published about schizophrenia, The Temptress Ariel and Selene's Guiding Light (both published by Publish America).

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by Bonnie in Pennsylvania

I have lived a life that I would not want anyone to live. At the age of 13, I went on my first diet even though I was not overweight. This was when my life began spiraling out of control. It took about four years to get a diagnosis and that diagnosis was anorexia nervosa. I went from 110 pounds to 90 pounds to 69 pounds over an eight-year period.

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by Kathy in North Carolina

Several years ago, I experienced chronic depression in which I could no longer function at work and at home. The painful symptoms of depression were so extreme that I tried to take my own life. Months before this happened, I sought out professional help, but without insurance I ended up in a mental health system being treated with no understanding and no empathy from the counselor who assisted me. I walked out of the counselor's office even more depressed.

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