"We are so pleased with the outstanding submissions we have been receiving for Ward Stories. We are a talented bunch!!" 

"There still are some options available if you have no coverage or your HMO refuses to pay for your medication."

"Those who may have spent decades in lives of isolation, confusion, dependence and curtailed activities  ... cannot help but struggle with who the real them is, and which is the real world."

"Staking out a pathway, faithfully following it along and enriching one's life, gives a tremendous sense of independence, of setting one's own direction, and of personal power."

"My plans fell apart late in my third year of college when I started hearing voices ... Part of the experience was wonderful and spiritual, but part of it caused me to suffer through feelings of great fear and rage." 

"Suddenly the police are at your door, dragging you out of the comfort of your home with no explanation. ... You are put in the back of a patrol car like a criminal. ... You are a 102 lb., 70 year old female being hauled away without explanation by two young and strong officers of the law."

"Overall, what we realized was that as mental health consumers, we need creative outlets to express our thoughts and feelings and something besides medication to calm us down."
 

"When I mention to other consumers that I go for shock treatments, also known as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), the reaction I get is usually negative. They say things like: 'Oh you're going to fry your brain'"

"During the 1940s and '50s a great many people benefited from this treatment. Nevertheless, because of people's natural fear of electricity, popular movies and novels such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, ... the use of ECT greatly declined during the 1960s.

"I did not want to even see myself as mentally ill despite the fact that I have been hospitalized three times and am living on SSI and have been taking medication since the fall of 1991 ... I thought that if I acted 'healthy' and 'normal' I wouldn't be 'mentally ill.'"