Thank you for sharing your success story with me. I commend you for seeing the blessing within the hardship.

My friend also self-medicated for the pain inside & out. Between all the alcohol, all the other drugs he used & his illness, he was a walking time bomb. It was just by God's Grace no one ended up dead. It was close several times.

Now that he's clean & sober, they could stabilize his meds. His sensitive & caring soul shines clearer. Others are starting to appreciate him & think maybe they won't write him off just yet.

With all the recent breakthroughs in brain imaging, researchers can measure the differences between the normal controls & those with ADD, BPD, BiP, etc. There are chemical causes of those dysfunctional behaviors.

Maybe someday soon that toxic case manager will learn to stop blaming my friend & others like him for being & acting mentally ill. Maybe she'll learn to have some compassion for those who struggle & fail & try again.

As a Japanese proverb says,

"Fall down seven times, get up eight!!!"