You have offered us much food for thought in this post. I have long since learned that while I respect and need other people's opinions in certain issues, the only opinion I can change is my own. I have to live with myself and if something needs to change, I must do it.

If we are ill, we go to a phycician who looks us over, decides if we need meds, surgery, a cast, etc, and we get better. If we sit at home, we will only get worse and more miserable.

So it goes with mental illness. Our illnesses lie to us. They cause us to perceive ourselves and the world around us in a distorted way, like the mirrors in a carnival fun house. If we choose to do so, we can find a clearer and more true image of ourselves.

My path to healing is also through medication and therapy. Sometimes I mess up and I'm back looking at the mirror in the fun house and sometimes I do well, and see the clear mirror.

My inner demons were so bad that I was terrified to go to my pdoc. Not only was I afraid of her, I was terrified to leave my house. It took trip after trip, each one getting a little closer to her office to just be able to get in her door, but I made it and I was on my way.

We have to fight to heal ourselves. We have to fight for our own realities and our own truths, if we choose to see the truth.