Danny's Prison - Danny has been involuntarily committed at the Chester Mental Health facility in Illinois for four years since he was 19.

One breezy summer - true story of a boy's love for his brother who was struck with mental illness.

Empowerment

Repossess life by Tom Barresi.

One mother's testimony to the Texas House to try to save her son from forced institutional psychiatry.

Personal tale of love and tragedy in a relationship with one suffering from multiple personality disorder/dissociated personality disorder, and a theory on its cause. 

Hannah Fairchild, NAMI Santa Cruz County president last year, passed away on  May 1, 2002, after a courageous fight with leukemia.  Her inspiration and enthusiasm will be missed.

Gail A. Hornstein, Professor of Psychology at Mount Holyoke College, has compiled a large bibliography of first-person narratives of madness and the experience of treatment.

Food for thought:  if the world consisted of 100 people this is what it would be.

Dear Son - poem from Joy to her son at Atascadero State Hospital.

Every Asylum has a big back yard: poetry by Bonnie Schell.

Jeff's story - another case of forced psychiatry and fear.

A father's experience of losing his son from the medication Ritalin caused him to get to the bottom of it, and now he is trying to help other families in similar situations.

Three Oregonians who have manic depressive illness find that dedicated therapists and proper medications are the key. 

Pat Deegan, Ph.D., speaks from the depths of her soul, revealing how the mental health system has so often impeded patients' road to recovery, and how we can do better.

David tells his story of struggles with dual diagnosis, schizophrenia and bipolar.

One family's story of how they tried to care for their son who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the difficulties of dealing with the system.

Shawn describes his struggles with schizophrenia and gradual progress in learning to manage it.

Learning from a troubled genius - one person's experience meeting John Nash, the nobel prize winning schizophrenic - his story is told in the recent movie and book "A Beautiful Mind".

Joy continues to tell the heart rending story of her son's life as an institutionalized mental health client.

A father struggles to make sense of the his son's agonizing struggle with schizophrenia. 

I stumbled on an old Hallmark greeting card the other day... submission by Kevin Gourley.

The Dragoon - submission by Tom Barresi

We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. - Delightful story which has been circulating around the internet.

Branded - new Fresh Air submission from Nickolas.

First issue of The Radical Quill A Journal by Irene Lynch, who created the ALEPPOS Foundation.

How many of you have heard of People First Language - by Diana Kern.

A mother's story of her son's schizophrenia, and the support she received from NAMI and the NAMI-SCC newsletter.

A young student's focus and direction in life is crystallized by her brother's diagnosis with mental illness.

A story of one parent's struggle to find the real cause of her daughter's problems.

Cloak of Love, a story by Ardath Rodale, and submitted to Fresh Air by Joy. Note: She found this when she flipped her Bible open to Luke 10:30 to 37.

Tom Barresi writes to President Clinton, relating this story of Francis Farmer.

Client Poetry and Artwork on display from the Santa Cruz Mental Health Client Action Network.  Check this out, wonderful contributions...

I, quite naturally started falling in love with the mentally ill, in mental hospitals. Having never seen such a disheveled collection of characters before, I approached them all as I would a Charles Dickens, (a notable bipolar) novel; and wanted to read each and everyone of them.

Freedom from Labels by John Laue. 

Two of my all-time favorite Bipolars - Tom Barresi's new submission to Fresh Air, inspired by Robert Fieve's book, Mood Swing .

Here is an inspiring quote from Helen Keller on the subject of not giving up, but striving on to overcome obstacles and get success.

As I near my Journey's end - poem by a former client and client aide in the mental health system.  Bob S now is in hospice care for terminal cancer.  He is taking in orphan greyhounds and training them so they can go to new homes.

My Neighbor Came - A Mother shares her son's mental illness, by Joy  

A Little Optimism Can Go A Long Long Way - Check out this new submission from a friend who has struggled many years with mental illness, and emerged stronger because of it.

Writings from my son, Steven - poignant writing by a man who has been hospitalized much of his life.

My son had a terrifying psychosis in Aug 98. He was put on Zyprexa and Zoloft. He took a year and a half to reduce to zero and got better and better. It was like a miracle the way his wonderful personality came back. Rather suddenly things started to disintegrate three months after totally quitting meds.

We do not stop playing because we are old, we grow old because we stop playing.

Yesterday is history - poem reminds us to appreciate the moment.

A Special Race - story of a very special Special Olympics.

"Messengers"  by Joy -- A story of a parent's transformation and opening.  Note:  See the exciting update to this story....  read about the stories power to transform the situation.