I have lived with a diagnosis of severe bipolar I disorder and experienced dozens of major depressive episodes, including extended periods of suicidal depression, and psychosis for over 20 years.

More specifically, my experiences include personal and career disruptions, withdrawal and isolation, suicidal depression, five severe manic episodes, three involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations, four relapses, and criminal justice involvement. I also have extensive experience in mental health recovery through my own journey and engagement with peers and caregivers pursuing recovery. I have been happily living in recovery since 2018 after an 18-year battle with serious mental illness.

My Serious Mental Illness Lived Experience Expertise is based on many sources, including:

1. Personal experiences living with serious mental illness for over 20 years;
2. Extensive experience identifying, researching, and writing about a wide range of serious mental illness topics. My research has been focused on evidence-based approaches to address serious mental illness and pursue and reach recovery. I translated many clinical and academic discussions into highly accessible plain English;
3. Engagement with caregivers. These include experiences of my caregiver, who has been with me through my entire serious mental illness journey. I have also learned through the shared experience of many other caregivers I have met and worked with. I have coached hundreds of parents seeking to help their loved one with serious mental illness. I am also extensively involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) which focuses on helping supporters of people with serious mental illness. I am currently a director of its New York City affiliate, NAMI’s largest;
4. Insights gleaned from interactions with hundreds of peers living with serious mental illness whom I have met through my involvement in the peer specialist community. I am a trained New York Certified Peer Specialist-Provisional. I have engaged with these specialists and other peers through the work of the ForLikeMinds peer support community website, which I created, and my non-profit organization, a leading psychiatric hospital outreach program which has reached over 10,000 patients;
5. Mental health recovery promotion and advocacy through social media;
6. Mental health recovery promotion and advocacy through mainstream media;
7. Personal treatment experiences with multiple psychiatrists, therapists, and other healthcare providers, hospital programs, and hospitals;
8. Dialogue with corporate entities, behavioral health organizations, including leading hospitals, and investment advisors;
9. Significant history raising awareness of serious mental illness, among people with conditions, family and supporters, and society more broadly, and advocating for positive change in perceptions, behaviors, and treatment approaches.