Let’s Stand Up: Why the World Needs More Mental Health Advocates

BY KATHERINE SWITZ

*Originally published on FormScore

Twenty-five years ago, I experienced my first psychotic break. Believing that I was Jesus Christ, I stepped out into the Charles River to walk on water. When taken to Harvard Urgent Care, I began baptizing a series of nurses in the sink. A couple of hours later, I found myself in a locked psychiatric ward, diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

I turned to the doctor and asked if I would be able to get well, go back to school, and have the demanding career I’d always wanted. The doctor’s response was nothing short of utterly disheartening. We don’t know, he said, it could go either way.

While in the hospital, my mom gave me a life-changing book: An Unquiet Mind by Kay Radfield Jameson. In this book, the author writes about her experience with psychosis, which I was having, and how she went on to have a prestigious career. I held that book up to the doctor as I was leaving the hospital and I said, this woman did it – I’m going to do it too. Even though at that point, I had no idea how.

Ten years later, I had an established career, happy marriage, and supportive community, and I realized it was time to be the inspiration the author was to me, to many others. I decided to start speaking openly about my life with a mental health condition so that people in the hospital could see a real-life example of getting better despite a serious mental health condition.

But it couldn’t just be me, one person; there had to be thousands of us so that everyone could have a role model that they could relate to, who looked like them.

This was the impetus behind The Stability Network, a growing global community of now over 250 individuals in 146 cities and nine countries. These individuals – who we call Stability Leaders – are living and working with mental health conditions; they share their stories to inspire and encourage others experiencing mental health challenges, allowing them to see that it is possible to live a full life with any mental health diagnosis.

The world today is a much different place than it was when I had my first psychotic break that landed me in the hospital. The pandemic and events of 2020 have caused mental health to have a moment. More people than ever are experiencing mental ill-health, and more people than ever are talking about mental health.

And yet, sadly, stigma still pervades our communities and workplaces and too many are not getting the care and support they need to live well. This is why it is more important than ever to raise up mental health advocates, those with lived experience who can offer their stories as roadmaps to recovery.

People who can stand up and say, “I have been there, and this is how I was able to overcome.”

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