"I would like to share some poems with you. In re-reading these, I think, "what a different place I'm in now...," which makes me even more proud of the changes I have made."

"I have DI along with acid reflux disease, slight arthritis, and the occasional flu, all of which are unpleasant, sometimes awful, but can be lived with. It's a matter of putting things into perspective."

"I'm 28 years old and live at home with my parents. I suffer from manic depressive illness. My parents expect my therapist and doctor to share everything about my therapy and my medication with them. Don't I have any right to privacy?"

"I have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Unlike other friends of mine with schizophrenia, manic-depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, ... my psychiatrist says there is no specific medication to help manage my illness. Is this true?" 

"they could be at ease, feel welcomed by those with mental illness whose plight they had come to understand a little more. And perhaps this was the biggest accomplishment of the day: a hand warmly extended to other New Yorkers had been warmly received."

"Too often, both physicians and patients collide in what I sometimes think of as "the dance of medication prescribing." The doctor pretends that, as might be the case with antibiotics, there is an exact dose of medication that is perfectly right for YOU. You pretend that you are taking exactly that dose, and each med visit, each of you does another step in the dance."

"it is difficult for me to live with schizophrenia even now. Though I've come a long way since my hospitalizations, .. I don't want to tell people I have schizophrenia  ... I fear the shame I might bring upon myself for having this illness"

Copyright © 1999 NYC Voices

"I was totally disoriented, delusional to a degree, and very frightened. I knew nothing about mental illness and my family, though supportive, knew even less."

"Eighty percent of the uninsured are in a household headed by an employed person ... Lack of coverage means they and their children don't get the health care they need ... Almost every problem in health and health care is made more serious and harder to solve because of the large and growing number of uninsured."

"a law establishing involuntary outpatient commitment is creating compulsory participation in something that does not exist ... For politicians in New York State, adopting outpatient commitment would mean great headlines and failed public policy."

"Shame on the state! It isn't appropriating sufficient money to remedy this problem. The legislators are guilty of business-as-usual."