My mental illness, if untreated, is completely disabling. I feel blessed to live in a time when psychiatric medications are available, even though they are far from perfect. Medication has allowed me to have a successful life (raise a family, be a good friend, be a good aunt/sister/daughter, be a responsible employee, be a loving wife, be a productive member of society, etc.).

I had a great-aunt who was hospitalized in Creedmoor Psychiatric Institution from the time she was 19 until she was in her early-50's. She spent the last two years of her life living with my grandmother (her sister),but died in her mid-50's. I had an aunt who battled with mental illness and shot herself - suicide - at age 60. I have a cousin who shot and killed himself when he was in his early 30's. I believe that if my mother had had access to psych meds she wouldn't have been crazy and abusive (and abused). I have a sister who is dying from the effects of having been a meth addict for many years, she needs mental health treatment, but refuses it.

With mental illness, stress that might be small to others is HUGE to me. Medication helps me cope with stress - both external and internal. Meds provide a stabilizing buffer between me and the sharp edges of life...I can enjoy life, rather than suffer through it battling every minute to keep from drowning in my craziness. I'm by nature a "do-er". I'm a dynamic person, a creative person, and meds allow me to be the BEST of who I am.