I've been hospitalized twice in the past 4 years. I am bipolar with psychotic features, and I'm currently on my 7th antipsychotic trial. A lot of people who aren't in the mental health system don't understand that the process of finding the right kind of therapy or therapist is something that both takes years and takes over your entire life.

I just was taken off of Clozaril; while I was taking it, I couldn't walk through the grocery store without almost passing out. While I was in the hospital, the people I was with came from every walk of life. The stigma behind being there was so large that some of them wouldn't say anything except, "I'm not crazy, I shouldn't be here." As someone who has hallucinated throughout all of my life and thought there were tiny people inside my walls, I know what "crazy" is. Hospitals are not for "crazy" - they are for healing.