"Mr. Williams is speaking of the everyday events which most people take for granted, but which are difficult to manage if you are in a state of psychic distress ... Ms. McManus, too, is contrasting the way in which one functions when they are emotionally healthy, with the stark terror one faces when illness strikes."

"I thought maybe there wasn't enough daylight, or maybe I had a genetic disorder. Whatever the reason, I knew I was slowly losing control of my life."

"With the eruption of mental  illness, siblings experience confusion, stress, fear for their sibling and for themselves, disruptions in the family and profound sadness and pain for the ill sibling."

"Aging parents of disabled adult children are often in a quandary. They want the child to be independent but the history of illness and acute episodes gives the parents' anxiety a basis in reality."

"The use of St. John's Wort has increased dramatically in both Europe and the U.S. More than 60 million daily doses ... are prescribed by German physicians -- eight times more often than standard drugs"

"The new IOC law could affect a significant number of persons living with mental illness who have a history of lack of compliance with treatment."

"On June 28, 1999, Gregory Lee Richardson died in restraints in the Albany County Jail. Diagnosed with schizophrenia 20 years earlier, Mr. Richardson was in the jail following his arrest for a traffic-related incident ... after nearly three weeks in the Albany County jail without a full psychiatric evaluation"

"Wilma's thoughts and speech were more organized; the voices were at first diminished, and then they disappeared. Wilma became able to entertain some plans for her life and to understand how much trouble she was to herself and others without the Risperdal."

"The New York State Office of Mental Health's Bureau of Recipient Affairs began in 1992 as a single individual charged with bringing consumer/survivor perspectives into the policy-making process."

"For the last couple of years... my doctor has prescribed both an anti-psychotic medication and an antidepressant. For almost all of this time, it's been really hard for me to have sex. I'm very, very frustrated."
 

"Starting a life with this illness is fearful because one does not know how others will respond to you. You are often judged by your illness rather than being judged as a person with an illness. I am scared every time I meet friends, family, new acquaintances, and people in the work force."

The U.S. Senate just passed the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 ... because they recognized one simple fact: if only another one-half of one percent of us with disabilities were to join the workforce, the savings to the Social Security Trust Funds over our work lives would amount to $3.5 billion.

"The conference... was organized and moderated by Ms. Tipper Gore, President Clinton's Mental Health Advisor. Ms. Gore spoke openly of her own episode with depression. 'To improve the health of our nation, we must make sure our mental health is taken as seriously as our physical health,' Ms. Gore said."

"Mental illness I've learned to live with. However, I can't forget the court rooms, prison transport vans, holding tanks, nor the cell blocks most of all. I was in hell for a year. ... I take my ... lithium carbonate to maintain my sanity. For I know without [it] the gates of Riker's Island or worse will open for me."