The very first symptom I experienced for my schizoaffective disorder was hearing voices. They have stayed with me for 11 years, sometimes really intense and sometimes more laid back. I wrote a memoir about it (Randal, Randal, Burning Bright) and had my family read it, so they got some idea what I was going through. Next year I'm going to write a 10-year update to my disorder, detailing how symptoms have changed or stayed the same over all these years. People think they get it when you describe symptoms to them, but they really don't. They get an idea, but it's not the same thing as experiencing it yourself.

There are a LOT of people out there who don't believe there really is such a thing as mental illness. They think psychiatric workers are the modern phrenologists, and people who say they are 'mentally ill' are just fakers trying to get on disability and defraud the government. These are the guys who shut down the mental health hospitals in the late 70's and early 80's.