The stories of mental illness are as varied as we are.

The following stories are from real people who have lived with mental illness and from their friends who have supported them through recovery. Their words are powerful; their courage is inestimable. If you or somebody you know is coping with a mental health problem, take a look. You'll recognize fears, hopes, and dreams that you may be dealing with right now. Only by sharing can we come together as a community and send the outmoded stigmas packing. Get to know the people on these pages, then share your own story. You just might help somebody very much like you!

Bill Schneider's Story
I grew up in a normal family, and I was a bright kid—I.Q. of 140, a straight-A student. But while I was in college, my concentration began to disappear. I began to hear voices telling me that I was nobody, that I was never going to make it in life.
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Celinda Jungheim's Story
When I was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California for yet another suicide attempt, after rotating in and out of both private and state hospitals ... I certainly felt hopeless and thought there was no life for me.
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Dave Shaver's Story
When I think about my life today, I think about Johnny Nash's lyrics, "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone," because 10 years ago, my life was stormy.
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Deanne's Story
I am in recovery from mental illness, and I believe that giving back to my community has helped me tremendously in the recovery process.
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Elvira E. Sears's Story
I thought my life was just beginning. I'd finished college a few years earlier and was working on a research project. Then, symptoms started appearing, and my life came to a standstill.
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Frank Scassellati's Story
I have had a mental illness since childhood, in the early 1960s, but I received no treatment for it due to a lack of mental health services for children and adolescents in my area.
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Jacquelin's Story
In the spring of 1998, my world came crashing down. I lost my home, my job, my car, my mind, and almost my life.
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Jan Anastasato's Story
In high school, drawing the shades and listening to Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead on occasion could have been the beginning of depression or just teen angst.
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Jen Wand's Story
To look at my life now, you'd never guess what was in my past. I graduated from Boston University with a grade point average of 3.8, lived in Japan for a year, and am now working with a public relations firm in the nation's capital. But the truth is, I nearly didn't graduate from high school.
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Jeffrey Ryan's Story
I was raised in Long Island, New York. I was a relatively active kid, and I had difficulty sitting still in school—I was bored and did much better with hands-on learning. When I was in my early teens, I started to hear a voice giving me commands.
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Lynn's Story
In my teen years, I had some anger issues but never identified them as mental health problems. The turning point for me was toward the end of an unhealthy relationship, when a door was locked in my face and I decided to put a fist through it.
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Mitch's Story
At age 22, I had my first bout of depression. I didn't know what triggered it, and I struggled through it on my own. After the third episode, I went to a psychiatrist and was put on medication.
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Alice Tsai's Story
As a Chinese-American, I have always been a high achiever. However, when I graduated from college and had not gotten into medical school or gotten a full-time job, I felt like a failure. I returned to my parents' home to work at the neighborhood Walgreens.
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Victoria Molta's Story
I have lived with a severe mental illness, schizoaffective disorder, for over 20 years. It began in college with depression, psychosis, and anxiety that were triggered by the stress of studies and an abusive boyfriend.
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Randolph C. Hack's Story
I began having problems when I was in high school. My father was in the Army, and we moved around a lot. I was the victim of cruel teasing and harassment, and I did not go to my junior or senior prom. My mother took me to see an Army psychiatrist in 1962, and he knew there was something wrong but, in those days, there was little they could do to help.
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Sam Harris's Story
At the age of 14, I started having serious hallucinations and blackouts. I'm half African American and half Native American, and I didn't try to get help because, in both communities, they called that "going to the white man." But I became an outcast, because my symptoms got so bad that none of my friends wanted to have anything to do with me.
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Karin Heck's Story
At the age of 21 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This was after many years of drinking myself into oblivion to manage the symptoms. After my diagnosis, my family disowned me. They felt that my coming out as having bipolar disorder tarnished the family name.
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Adrienne Young's Story
I am 27 years old and the mother of a beautiful five-year-old son. I am a daughter, a sister, and a board member of my neighborhood association. I am the executive director of a non-profit organization. I also have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality disorder, severe reoccurring depression, and anxiety.
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