I am a woman with chronic schizophrenia. I have spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals. I could have ended up living most of my life on a back ward, but things turned out quite differently.

My mind has been both my best friend and my worst enemy.

Everyone becomes psychotic in his or her own ways.

My good fortune is not that I've recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life.

The schizophrenic mind is not so much split as shattered. I like to say schizophrenia is like a waking nightmare.

Stigma against mental illness is a scourge with many faces, and the medical community wears a number of those faces.

Some people still hold [the] view that restraints help psychiatric patients feel safe. I've never met a psychiatric patient who agreed.