From Serendip

MENTAL HEALTH Materials provided here are neither intended nor suitable for individuals needing practical assistance with specific mental health problems of their own or of friends/family/colleagues. For such situations, people should contact local mental health agencies, doctors, or other health care professionals. Some access points are provided here.

Center for Science in Society

Issues in mental health are primarily presented "from the outside" by doctors, scientists, and other professionals who observe the behavoirs of individuals other than themselves. There are good reasons to believe that this outside perspective, while valuable, is also limited in its ability to make sense of, and to help resolve, issues of mental health. The following links are provided as a contribution to overcoming such limitations by providing descriptions "from the inside," by people experiencing and addressing mental health issues in their own lives and/or in the lives of their family and friends.

• A Story About Grace
  Article from the August 2002 editon of Friends Journal about living with mental illness by Mariellen Gilpin.
• The Center for Reintegration
  Organization dedicated to bringing the mentally ill "back to health, back to life." Site includes success stories and highlights of the free magazine Reintegration Today.
• Jane's Mental Health Page: Personal Stories
  Personal accounts of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, panic disorder and other personality disorders.
• In Our Own Voices
  NAMI information page about obtaining guest speakers to share first hand experiences with serious mental illness with support groups, consumers and students.
• Tell Us Your Story
  NAMI site soliciting personal stories of insurance discrimination to aid in the fight for parity.
• New York City Voices
  An online journal for consumers, practitioners and families about living with mental illness.

• What's It Like to Have ADD?
  Dr. Edward Hallowell explains what it's like tolive with Attention Deficit Disorder.
• Personal Stories Area
  Personal accounts by members of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA)

• McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web personal accounts, research, and links to informative articles
• Medication: The Foundation of Recovery
  The Foundation of Recovery: Personal story and advice and information for mental health consumers written by Edward G. Francell, Jr, a social worker with bipolar disorder.
• Web diary of a teenage manic depressive girl
  No links, no advice, no information other than the very valuable understanding that can be gleaned from the selected web journal entries of a teenager's seven years of dealing with bipolar disorder.
• Living with Manic Depression
  Informative site with personal stories and well writen essays by young people with manic depression.
• Advocates for People With Bipolar Disorder Form Alliance
  The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and the Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF) form alliance to aid children, adults and families affected by bipolar disorder.
• A Personal Experience of Learning About Bipolar Disorder
  A paper by Debbie Plotnick about her daughter's experience as a teen with Bipolar Disorder.
• Ashley Plotnick's story of becomeing "a strong, healthy, woman."
  Autobiographical Essay written for college applications 2002.

• Walkers in Darkeness
  A site linking to a multitude of personal web pages related to depression and bipolar disorder.
• Depression Journal
  Personal experiences, and opportunity for discussions, about living with depression.
• Real Men Real Depression
  Learn about signs and symptoms of depression in men
• DEPRESSION: What Every Woman Should Know
  Learn about why women are at greater risk of depression than men

• Understanding OCD
  Personal account and excellent list of resources and information regarding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
• The pathway to recovery-In their own words
  Personal experiences of living with, and recovering from, obsessive compulsive disorder from the OCD Resource Center of South Florida.

• Schizophrenia Support Group
  Schizophrenia support newsgroup, which includes resources and stories.
• Schizophrenia Home Page
  Personal stories, information and support for those dealing with schizophrenia.
• THE EXPERIENCE OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
  Homepage of schizophrenia sufferer Ian Chovil, which includes treatment options, recovery plans, scientific explanations, and personal photos.

• Shout it Out
  Message Board From the Epilepsy Foundation
• From Biblical Times to Today: What Has Changed and What Hasn't Changed about Epilepsy
  A personal account by Bryn Mawr Student Patricia Palermo, May 2003.

• Cosmic Coniptions
  Steve Brier's personal experiences confronting and overcoming Asperger Autism and a Savant Brain
• BEING DIFFERENT: LIVING WITH AUTISM
  Interactive and informative web resource where you play, discover and respond, where the goal is to empower, educate and inspire.
• The National Autistic Society
  Personal Accounts from individuals and family members about living with Autism and Asperger syndrome.
• Autistic Adults Picture Project
  Photos and Personal Narratives by and about individuals with Autism.

• Measure for Measure: An Artistic Exploration of Eating Disorders, Body Image, and the Self
  A gallery of images and a discussion forum exploring of the Mythology of Eating Disorders
• Stories by Victims of Eating Disorders
  Sponsored by the Center for Counseling & Health Resources, Inc.-A Place of Hope

• Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression, edited by Nell Casey, presents famous authors' personal accounts of their own, or a family member's, battles with depression.
• An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is book by the leading expert on bipolar disorder, Kaye Redfield Jamison, about her own life-long struggles with this disease.
• Night Falls Fast is Kay Redfield Jamison's compellation of scientific information about suicide and stories of individuals who succumbed to the ultimate symptom of depression.
• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness is renowned novelist William Styron's account of his nearly fatal battle with major depression.
• A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness, by Patty Duke and Gloria Hochman, is the famed actress's story of how she gained control of the illness that almost destroyed her life and hurt many of those around her.
• Win the Battle is the personal story of Bob Olson, a man, who successfully put his life back together after a devastating, five year, battle with depression and bipolar disorder.
• Quiet Room: A Journey Out Of The Torment Of Madness, offers the perspectives of Lori Shiller, her family and her doctor, regarding the reclamation of a life once debilitated by a decade long struggle with schizophrenia, due in large part to type new class of medication.
• Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals: The Hidden Epidemic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is physician Ian Osborn's informative and useful guide to living told through stories of real people, including the authors first hand experience with this disorder as a medical student.