"Once I left that job she unfriended me on Facebook, on my birthday. Even though by that point she knew I had mental health problems."
Oh dear, I know that's quite hard not to take personally, but birthday notifications are often when people realize they're friended to someone they don't really speak with often. The Coldplay laughers are just music snobs. :)
Good job finding a working solution that's appropriate for you and good luck with your journey.
It seems the writer is a UK citizen, who as such would have a national health care system to provide medical and I assume mental health care. In the US, we have no such thing, and many with mental illness who could be productive with adequate support are basically thrown away.
3
You are very lucky to have to financial means to live the life you have!
Everyday i walk by mentally ill people that are living on the streets. There is either a long waiting list for shelter or they are afraid to go into the shelter for fear of bodily harm. Many families do not have the means to support the person affected by this illness. With the current occupant of the White House I do not expect things to get better.
1
i appreciate your contribution. I have jumped very stable jobs (3 in the past 5 years) over my anxiety. i am barely learning how to manage my anxiety with this new job and it's a terrible feeling each and every day. i have to manage 12 people and sometimes i don't think they care if they do good jobs. this is when my anxiety kicks in and takes over and creates a variety of scenarios and dialogues that feel so real it's scary. i really do feel a little selfish about feeling good that there is someone else out there. thank you.
1
Having worked in mental health services in acute care in-patient, out patient and residential treatment settings for several years as an Occupational Therapist, it sounds like you, Ms Cromptron, are in a pretty good place right now with your illness. And In light of the depth of misunderstanding that exists in our country today about chronic mental illness -as well the increasing threats to funding for effective mental health care at all levels-I very much admire your willingness to help put a human face on an illness that the majority of Americans would rather not talk (or even think) about.
I think if we consider that there is literally no family, industry, social group or
(especially) political group in the US today that couldn't benefit from better information as to how mental illness can affect every aspect of a suffers life; and how we, as a country, need to include this knowledge into our interactions and expectations with them in order to better utilize the individual suffers strengths (and understand their weaknesses)- We see that the work of such people as Erica is invaluable.
So, thanks once again Ms Crompton for your insights, your humor and your bravery in speaking out about your experiences with living with this illness. I only hope, that your story and insights can be passed along to some of those folks who may think that now is a good time to be cutting funding for mental health services even further.
8
Good for you, Erica, You have wonderful courage and honesty.
5
I envy your productivity. I am a former journalist now retired. I am , however sitting on a 30 page manuscript about my first psychotic break. I have approached one professional writer to help me record for posterity my experience juggling a high level writing job in Washington DC with scizoaffective disorder. But since this brilliant journalist ,recently retired from the Washington Post, is someone I chased for 30 years wthout success I think I need to cast a wider net for a coauthor. Another thing that intrigues me about your story is your migration to the UK.. my parents are both from there and I have a cousin there. I would like to spend my summers there. But I have no clue how to find an apartment there and adjust to an expat existence.
Thank you for your “work in progess”.
1
This was so beautifully engaging. I love how you came to find a creative way to continue your work in a life-affirming manner. Yes- your bullying was real and I'm sorry if that added to your paranoia. You had good reason girlfriend.
3
Jobs -- everyone should have one, even people who don't need to work; especially people who want to work for themselves. Work where you have to learn to accommodate other people's schedules, habits, standards -- can be powerful if you have emotional or psychiatric problems; or if your parents did, or if you were raised in a tight political or religious community that had big blinders about reality.
Approached with insight, jobs teach you, like nothing else, that there are other people in the world, and they are not just like you. "Know yourself" is important, and so is "know your neighbor."
With the right heart, you can usually make it from that to "To know is to love." Everyone should try it. Don't stay home!
3
We are all a work in progress... I hope.
5
Your story is well written, a pleasure to read and hopeful despite the serious subject of having a brain disorder. Thank you!
2
Wonderful article.
1
The author has done her audience a great favor by telling her story honestly. There are so many people who have or will struggle with this misunderstood illness. When I was first hospitalized, after the birth of my second child, in a very small hospital in a very small town, it was a nurses assistant who told me under her breath that she had survived a breakdown. This helpful remark couldn't have come at a better time. I knew nothing about postpartum or much about mental illness. By the time my family realized I needed help, I was totally bonkers. Thank goodness for the new meds (that was in the early 70s) and our local Counseling Service or I would still be in a psychotic state of mind. I've read several helpful and informative books, but right on my lap now is, "no one cares about crazy people" by Ron Powers. Read it! Mental illness still has a stigma because of ignorance. Most of our mass killings are related to how society has closed a blind eye to care for the most vulnerable in our society. I was lucky to have a loyal family and friends who cared. Not everyone is. As to the remark about forcing meds on the mentally ill, in most cases someone close to the person who is ill is in a better position to make that decision than the person who cannot think clearly, believe me, I was there.
12
My mother had the same diagnosis, schizoaffective disorder. She is older now but still has symptoms. As a society we all pay a huge price for not seeing mental illness as a medical issue. Yes, things are better now, but we still have a long way to go. Like Erica, keeping a job didn't last long. When she ran out of money this meant living on the streets. She eventually got help from a hospital and was transitioned to public housing, where she is to this day. She never had a career, even though she is super smart. She has never been able to maintain friendships, but her natural personality is to be social. She has learned to manage isolation.
The media uses the word schizophrenic as slang to mean multiple personality. This slang use is a barrier to understanding people who have the disease (which has nothing to do with multiple personalities.) It is very difficult for those of us that don't hear voices to understand what people who do hear voices experience. For the person hearing voices - it is real - and since it is coming from inside, it has its own logic that makes sense to the person experiencing it. Stress will likely make the symptoms worse. Stress can be not eating properly, lack of sleep, or the stress of interacting with other people, job, finances, etc.
Erica thank you for bringing this issue to the forefront. There are many who are still on the streets. Often we ignore (or worse judge) what we don't understand. We need to understand to be able to help.
8
Kudos to you, Erica, for sharing a difficult but inspiring story. I too have a mental illness, two of them, in fact: depression and PTSD. I was unable to work for many years, then was able to work as a writer, which worked for me due to its flexibility.
May you continue to grow and flourish on your own terms.
6
Thank you for a very honest and insightful piece. I'm inspired by the writer's perseverance and capacity to tell a story we rarely hear.
2
This sounds like some amazing break thru self reporting that will help those not affect with your diagnosis learn. You are a very brave pioneer, in my opinion. More courage than most of us that for sure. Much love to you and your work
3
I applaud the writer for sharing her story. It is inspiring for my family member with anxiety disorder.
I am bipolar. When I asked for reasonable accommodation from my employer, I said I needed to have my water bottle because I was taking lithium and becoming dehydrated would be life threatening, that from time to time, I'd need to spend 20 minutes listening to the relaxation music on my iPod so I could bring myself back to center, and that I needed to be treated with the same dignity and respect as anyone else.
My request for my water bottle was granted. The rest, denied.
We make progress in centimeters.
3
Good for you! You are obviously a person with many talents and many challenges--more challenges than average, certainly. (One commenter criticized you for not realizing that everyone has problems--some have more or more serious problems than others.) We all need to figure out what type of paying job suits us, and I'm glad for you that you're well on your way to doing that despite the extraordinary challenges. I hope you find a way to make a living wage with it.
1
The part that stuck out for me is about making castles out of the stones life throws at you. It’s easy to forget that, despite your challenges, you’re still surviving. There have been more successes than failures, or you wouldn’t be here. For that, it seems the author concluded that she is grateful when she finished by saying she’s a work in progress.
Regardless of our specific challenges, that’s true for all of us. Thank you for a delightful piece.
2
Really enjoyed this. She admits she's made mistakes, but she has a SERIOUS life threatening illness. I have bipolar disorder, I can relate to a lot of what the writer talks about with regard to work schedules. I am currently back in school so that I can form a life that fits my needs-therapy, meds, rest, etc. I want to have my own business again like I did in my twenties (I am 33). I admire this writer for speaking out, thanks!
10
Everyone is a work in progress.
6
lIt seems you assumed that you are the only one with mental/health issues and therefore entitled to special treatment. I bet most of your colleagues who turned on time were dealing with a myriad of health/life issues too.
1
Hi Olga - I hope that you didn't mean what you said because the way you said it is mean spirited, unnecessary and downright incorrect.
First of all, the writer of the piece does is in fat entitled to special treatment - what is commonly called a 'reasonable accommodation'. In fact, one of the supervisors she mentioned seemed to understand that and so long as she made up hours later in the day and got her work done then she could arrive at work 'late'.
Second, your statement that "I bet most of your colleagues...were dealing with a myriad of health/life issues too" is a snide nasty remark. You have no clue about what people endure in their lives and in what percentages. Most? This is a ridiculous statement and has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the writer's condition.
You should be more understanding which is, after all, alot of what the writer was getting at which you seemed to miss.
47
Olga, how totally misguided your comment is. Everyone has life and health issues from time to time, but dealing with a serious mental illness and the strong medications that treat it is much more than that.
It's not a matter of needing or asking for special treatment, but for accommodation so that one can continue to contribute to society. I hope you will understand this.
9
this is a serious medical disorder with serious impacts.
7
My sense is people who understand themselves to be "mental" are the only sane ones.
6
You are exceptionally brave.
12
Lovely. Grateful to you for having written this.
11
Compare this to today's article where the majority of IBM employees are in India. Being an employee means you work, and work without drama. If you cannot co-exist with an employer and do your job, then start your own business where all the successes and failures can be yours alone, although I would hardly consider an annual income of $6,260 a success. Companies are going global not just to lower operating costs, but to find qualified employees who actually want to work and do not consider the workplace to be a group therapy session created just for them.
3
"In an insane world, sometimes the sane must appear insane." Good onya, I look forward to reading more.
2
Mental ilness is still widely misunderstood and underserved by the medical community and society as a whole by so many and it is patients like you that write and talk about it that are making a difference and will have a real impact. Thank you Erica.
16
I hope your book helps people figure out how to help themselves and gives them hope. You’re lucky you can work at home doing what you really like and that you can still write. Most people end up after being fired so many times and years of taking all the meds with low paying jobs like bagging groceries or dishwasher or fast food which they hate because they have to be around so many strangers and it causes stress and then the paranoia comes back and also because now they’ll always be poor. You’re lucky you get regular therapy. You’re lucky you found a therapist who will even see you since your diagnosis is Schizoaffective Disorder and it used to be Paranoid Schizophrenia. Most people just get case managers to talk to and med management appointments every couple months when they’re diagnosed with that. Good luck on your book and with your job. Thank you for writing about mental illness.
10
Being super-sensitive and feeling targeted by others' comments, very vulnerable to them, used to be very familiar to me.
Then about 15 years ago I did a hypoallergenic elimination diet followed by food challenges, that had been recommended by an allergist, who I was seeing for my inhalant allergies.
I got sick after eating gluten grains and many, many other foods. And on a diet free of those foods, I felt much calmer inside, much less reactive to others. I feel like I have a skin, now; a private self.
Gluten grains might have affected me worse than other foods. I had a semi-hallucinatory aspect to my vision before I quit gluten, that went away after that.
Still nowadays, if I get exposed to one of those foods, even in tiny quantities, I become emotionally a lot more reactive, more likely to feel hurt and traumatized by things people do. As well as feeling sick and foggy-minded.
If one has allergies and a tendency to emotional hyper-reactiveness, doing a hypoallergenic elimination diet followed by food challenges might help.
11
Your comments are not helping
8
Maybe not helpful for you, but some people with schizophrenia are gluten-sensitive and are helped a lot by a gluten-free diet.
12
That is a very important tip. Reactions to food can be due to a combination of genetics and/or the influences of chronic viral and bacterial infections. Some of those infections and genetic anomalies are associated with mania, psychosis, depression, hallucinations, etc.
Often, psychiatric diagnoses begin and end with psychiatric symptoms, but if you can identify foods, sensory inputs, or cycles that correspond to worsening symptoms, you may be in your way to figuring out why psychiatric symptoms occur and how to counter them.
My significant other was suffering from rapid cycling bipolar episodes with very significant psychosis. With painstaking monitoring and research, we figured out what the doctors could not. She had genetic deletions that made it difficult to absorb and convert certain nutrients necessary to mental health. Further, she had more pronounced genetic variations that made psychosis likely if she got a big dose of the nutrients she had trouble converting. And, as if that was not enough, Lyme disease had infected her brain.
By carefully adjusting her diet and taking a mix of herbs, supplements, and mushrooms that counter the cytokine remodulation caused by Borrelia (Lyme), she is symptom free and actually on her way to healing her chronic infection.
The doctors said there was no way to understand why this was happening. Regardless, she felt something had invaded her uniquely sensitive body and it could be identified. She was right!
15
Was pleased to read Ms. Crompton's piece. In the process of writing my own work/mental illness essay. Multiple firings, some resignations, lots of luck, lots of medication and a good therapist. I keep moving. Glad she is as well.
7
How do you survive on $6,260? That's a big unexplained part of the story. In the US it would not be possible.
18
My father's side of the family has a form of hereditary mental disorder which I can trace back to the 1840's. The males have alcohol problems and are clinically depressed. The women are only clinically depressed. Several males have committed suicide, including my father, but no females. I have followed my heredity. I made a few suicide attempts and cuttings in my late teens.
I always did well academically. I became severely depressed when I was a grad student when my father committed suicide. I couldn't tell my advisor or anyone what had happened to my father and why I was sad. My specialty was Old English. To get an A.M. at my Ivy Scool, one had to take an exam on something related to English/American literature. Two subjects had nothing even remotely related to my field. I was also unused to taking tests. I stood up in the middle of the exam and walked out. I was told I could retake the test, but it was strongly implied that I would probably not be accepted in the PhD program. I retook the exam and passed.
I went to law school where grades were based solely on tests.I never had a nervous breakdown again, nor did I walk out of any exams. However, people always stared at the 7 large scars on my arms. In retrospect, I wish I had gotten plastic surgery. The legal field may be the least tolerant of mental illness of any field I know of. I have relatives in another branch who are schizophrenic and mildly autistic. I feel great empathy for Ms. Crompton.
20
You might be interested in another article from The NY Times, “The Madman Is Back In the Building”. It’s about an attorney with mental illness struggling to return to work. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/opinion/bipolar-breakdown-mental-heal...
Men who are lawyers are very, very traditional & traditionally minded too. Mental illness doesn't fit the paradigm; you make them nervous. If you were female or minority, you would make them nervous too! That said, there are depths of decency in that kind of man, and once your performance is predictable ... I get it that can be hard! ... you learn to appreciate that they DO know how to be a rock. People like us can always use a rock to lean on.
Sorry you had to endure so much before getting a proper diagnosis; that might have made a rocky path a bit less rocky. Hopefully, you now have a psychiatrist who is very capable at treating schizoaffective disorder.
2
Erica,
Keep your head up and keep moving forward--you have a great truth to share with the world and you are courageous and strong! Those who have not taken the time to understand the force you contend with will never know how brilliant you have been in managing and overcoming it. I know that it must surely be a daily endeavor and exhausting at times, but always know that as you remain open and direct about it, you will forever be a light to so many who suffer in silence. Great article and Godspeed with your book!
17
Great article. And I'm looking forward to your book!
12
Erica as you well know your story is a bright story from a hard world of paranoid schizophrenia.
I have a daughter who faded away when in her PhD program, eventually was hospitalized and medicated and when on to finish the degree at a top notch university. But she was never able to land the job her education could demand for the gaping hole in her résumé perhaps. Necessity sent her to be a night clerk in a tourist hotel at minimum wage, with one raise in seven years but she keeps her chin up until the effects of medication encouraged her to return to the voices. A good doctor went to court and won right to force medication so now she agrees to it but is without income until our frugally funded state welfare comes to help. Her story is I believe not unique in America. Good Luck to you keep the stories coming.
20
How does somebody "agree" to something if it was forced on them?
So the medication has bad side effects that she's being forced to tolerate, on the presumption that it's better than hearing voices? That was apparently not what she wanted for herself.
Maybe she could learn to cope OK with hearing voices. There's a "Hearing Voices Network" that supports people in learning to get along better with their voices.
6
Medication is only one tool in the toolbox. It can help, but sometimes, medication makes things worse.Especially after years of taking them. I wish we lived in a world where a good doctor would go to court to win the right to force talk therapy and supported employment and housing and peer support and all the other things that are just as important as medication.
9
My daughter agreed when it was apparent she had no choice but to be medicated again. Medication allowed her to leave the hospital and return home likely with some check-up scheduled. This prevented being sent to the mental equivalent of a 'safe house.' The issue of then finding public assistance as being disabled; a very difficult issue for a proud lady; but no other options to survive. Unknown if she yet as been granted assistance -- it is never a given in our land.
4
Thanks for sharing this great story!!! It's not easy to talk about mental health to strangers!
2
I have a close family member, in her 50's, in a psychiatric hospital. She is diagnosed bipolar and experiences delusional and paranoid thoughts. She went off her medications and does not believe she needs to conform to everyone's beliefs that she needs medication. She is very difficult to talk with and gets angry. The hospital is planning on discharging her shortly and she will probably conform yo the medications in order to get discharged. We are all concerned that she will regress.
Any suggestions on how to discuss this with her? Is it helpful to tell her what she is like when she is psychotic?
3
Frequently, the subtext to asserting that one does not need to be on psychiatric medication for bipolar conditions is a rejection of being labeled as "ill" and a desire to be accepted as unique. Also, most of the anti-psychotics are unpleasant and have miserable side effects for many patients. Approaching with compassion and curiosity about what is behind the rejection of meds can help establish the trust needed to make a difference in the life of someone coping with mania and psychosis.
Unfortunately, mania and psychosis are indications of metabolic brain injuries in people diagnosed as bipolar. The more, and more frequent, the episodes, the greater the compounding of the injuries.
A typical mechanism of the injury is excitotoxicity (firing itself to death) of neurons. When the neurons die, they release glutamate, which causes excitotoxicity in adjacent neurons as part of a chain reaction. GABA acts to douse this fire, but it is too big of molecule to pass the blood brain barrier. However, the supplement NAC gets converted to GABA and has been shown to suppress excitotoxicity events. It may not be enough to stop a manic/psychotic episode, but it can slow it down and help a person gain better social function and insight without unpleasant physical and mental effects.
If you let her know how difficult and worrisome her episodes are for you (after establishing trust), she may be willing to try NAC as a step toward staying out of the hospital. L-theanine helps, too.
1
Your intelligence, will and charm are apparent. They cannot be wasted despite your condition. Controlling psychosis and or mania is possible without affecting the ability to be constructive. There are psychiatrists who keep evening hours, who work with patients on medications to maximize benefit and minimize side effects and who will believe in you even when you don't.
24
And what the hell is ipnwith psychiatrists and therapists who don't have evening hours? They're supposed to be helping their patients. Requiring patients to see them during regular business hours contributes to failure at work - especially if you're having to go more than once a week.
31
This is the first that I have ever heard of psychiatrists not having evening hours.
3
Maybe not so common in the U.K.? That is where she lives.
1
New Yorkers always think that everyone lives like they do--24/7 activity, no shutting down. That, however, is far from the case for the rest of us in the U.S., large city or not.
10
I have PTSD. The 9-5 office life is a nightmare for me. I can't sleep in after nights of panic attacks and nightmares, which leaves me exhausted and unable to think clearly. I quit therapy partially because I couldn't fit it into the day without having to ask my manager to switch my hours. I can't exercise as much as I used to when I was running around campus as a grad student, leaving me with a lot of nervous energy. Office hours simply don't work for people like us, and companies have no interest in providing flexible hours. So I'll suffer needlessly for a paycheck until I can find a job that offers some flexibility and lets me perform at my best.
18
Yes, and even employers that advertise they have flexible hours/options to telecommute leave it up to individual managers or further higher ups to grant this "privilege." It is not just mental health appointments that "suffer." Try scheduling tests and making periodic appointments for ongoing medical issues. My PCP has no evening or very early hours. They advertise the office opens at 6:30 am but the pcp's hours do not start until 8:00 am and if she is available that day, I cannot see any of the other docs. No wonder I resort to using the nurse practitioner at Rite Aid. They seem to understand that some of us have to WORK to pay the medical bills and insurance.
10
Frankly, 9-5 is a nightmare for lots of people, even those of us who don't have PTSD. I'm a life-long insomniac and morning person. I like to be asleep at 9-10pm and up at 4am, no alarm necessary. I'd love to start work at 6am, finish at 2pm and have the afternoon for exercise and life-errands, because by 7pm, I'm just done with the day. Early hours worked for me when I was a hospital doctor, but now that I'm in a clinic setting, I'm stuck with everyone else's 9-5. If I wake at 3am, I've already been up for 6 hours before I see my first patient at 9am; I won't do evening hours because that makes for an endless day for me. Like you, I wish there were more options for those of us who don't fit into the 9-5 box.
15
Guess what, lots of people hate 9 to 5. It's hard on lots of people.
Erica,
This was such an interesting and enlightening essay. I hope to see more of your work and hear more about your world.
14
Best of luck to you, and keep on writing!
12
Erica, THANK YOU for your article, for sharing so openly about your struggles, and for being an advocate for others who also struggle with mental illness. I look forward to reading your book when finished. I suffer from treatment-resistant depression, as well as anxiety, with only recently finding relief from treatment with electro-convulsive therapy, something that's also stigmatized and a bit scary, to be honest. Although much better than I was, I am certain that I will still struggle for years to come, and I hope that my journey can provide hope and encouragement to others out there. My small way of advocating is in keeping a blog of my struggles- http://livingcloudcuckooland.blogspot.com
5
Sorry to say, but most office environments are not ready to accept people with mental (or for that matter physical) disabilities. It just isn't in their lexicon. A large part is they don't want to allow flexibility for doctor appointments (most psychiatrists operate on a 9-5 schedule, as do most other specialties). If you have kids, though, no problem getting off to attend junior's softball game anytime you want. The work world's priorities sure are messed up.
Honestly, I wish I had learned my lesson about this years ago and found a way to work from home. It would have made my life a whole lot easier, not to mention healthier.
19
The ADA requires that employers grant reasonable accommodations and FMLA provides for intermittent leave for qualifying employees.
11
Just because the ADA requires employers grant reasonable accommodations does NOT mean they will honor that law. In fact (and I know this from experience with a number of jobs) they often will do anything they can to undermine a disabled employee. They get away with it because it's very difficult for the average employee to successfully sue a company--especially a large corporation. Even smaller organizations will hide their true motives (get rid of/sideline any disabled person) because they don't want to pay medical insurance and don't want to make reasonable accommodations for a disabled employee.
They will also avoid hiring any disabled person if they know of the disability. If you disclose a disability to get said reasonable accommodations, you are opening a can of worms for yourself.
People are so naive about this. It's pathetic and discriminatory and companies get away with ALL THE TIME.
6
Where do most psychiatrists( or other specialists) work on a 9-5 schedule?
Surely not in New York.
2
I am happy to note the clear expression. There is need to bring this information to all those who are in need of it. It can be useful to all those others who live and work closely with them. There are occasions we feel something should but hesitate to take the right path. People hesitate to take the best suggestions and stay away from help, thinking that it may be a taboo to their social life! I noted people with different kinds of challenges at work place, yet cope with them with seeking additional or external help.
2
This was very moving. I admire your courage and continued motivation through these struggles. The stigma of mental illness does not seem to be waning any time soon though with the efforts of yourself though disclosure and educating people - great strides are being made. Your experiences also illustrate the continued imbalance between employers' responses to medical/physical issues and mental health issues in the work place. I plan to seek out your Beginners Guide to Sanity when it becomes available. Best of fortune to you!
11
Thank you, Erica! You are Exhibit A for why my mental health agency, Community Access, made a decision, in 1992, to affirmatively hire people who have a "lived experience." We all bring baggage to the workplace and openly acknowledging and accepting our differences lets our talented employees focus on their jobs, not their diagnosis.
Steve Coe, CEO, Community Access. NYC
36
I don't know why it took me so long to realize that the label "mentally ill" is regarded as pejorative by many (most?) people. The thing is, most of us are mentally ill in some way. We're *all* broken. It's what we do with or despite our brokenness that matters.
16
I know first hand the havoc that happens when your brain chemicals run amok. The more that people who have this happen talk or write about it, the better. It happens much more often than people realize, since most people whose brain runs amok don't talk about it.
12
You resemble at least three different girlfriends I had. They could never believe that what they thought of as their problems were part of what made them so appealing and interesting.
10
A man who was tolerant, open-minded to his disabled ex-girlfriends. Brah, you're a diamond in the rough.
4
You are the triumph of the human spirit - keep your course...
"...I now work from home as a freelance writer, at hours to suit...
Another writer who worked out of her flat in urban Scotland - w/ challenges of her own...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573476/Tears-as-JK-Rowling-retur...
The best that all the scientists and technologists can do is explain this world to us...
They sometimes miss - and sometimes lie...
Writers carry us to worlds seemingly as real - perhaps more intricately so....Often, more vibrant and interesting...
Godspeed to you and Andrew, on your continued journey...
PS - even as a writer, you can appreciate that the lead-in pic says it all...
4
I'm looking forward to reading that book. I think a lot of people have episodes like these, or interact with people who are having them.
11
Mental illness, a burden in itself, is compounded by people's failure to comprehend it for what it is. A tiny few are on the brave frontier of research and exploration; they are heroes and we have to hope someday soon are appreciated for their courage. We will learn to celebrate their stories from people like Erica. Only the brave.
18
We are all works in progress. In engineering I spun through only 38 different bosses in 25 years. Sometimes books help, though not for the reasons the author imagined. In "Hillbilly Elegy" despite the mixed messages and implied viewpoints, I was appalled, astounded, and oddly comforted to discover that I had an ACE score of 5. My day to day office struggles finally had an explanation.
3
Reading this provoked gratitude for how small my problems are, the ones that were huge when I woke up this morning. And respect for the author, for her courage and resilience. And writing skill.
It also got me thinking about how to pay more attention to those I encounter who might have hidden mental illness and how devoid of compassion it is to assume someone is intentionally being difficult.
What a contribution! Thank you.
35
managing the voice, or the voices is a better way.
1
Thank you for your honesty, your story and message are important.
28
As a mother with a son age 31 and has been diagnosed with mental illness. I so appreciate you article as well as your honesty. It helps so much to understand what he is going through.
A goal is to have him with a job and living on his own.
I'm in awe of his strength and graciousness each day. I will continue to support him in any way he needs.
As a NAMI member and Family to Family facilitator I walk the talk! We are not alone and we have hope.
Thank you again. Looking forward to your book!
35
Thank you for the enlightening read. The public needs more understanding and compassion for people with this illness.
32
Thanks for this look into your experience, it's the only way we can begin to understand.
22
Erica, thank you for this essay. It's refreshing and important to hear directly from the affected person about the experience of mental illness. Best of luck to you in your freelance career.
27
I applaud your openness and especially your willingness to reveal the daily thoughts that sometimes trip you up. What a family member suffers from mental illness, well-meaning friends say things like "he doesn't look/sound crazy." But a look inside that mind would remove all doubt. Not sure that would always be a good thing but we caregivers sure get tired of that old "he looks fine" pronouncement.
22
Thank you Ms. Crompton. Thank you NY Times. And thanks to those who have been patient in life. I believe this is part of our real 'diversity.'
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Good for you! You are building your own castle. Courage is the mortar for those stones, and you sure have it. Here's hoping that your story imparts tolerance and insight in other workplaces.
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Bravo Erica! Beautifully written. We need more stories like this to help us understand mental illness. I don't even like the term mental illness. You are amazing. Wonderful that you've finally found your niche !
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I have schizoaffective as well currently working part time and going to school it is a tough illness especially being slowed down by medicine thanks for speaking ou
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