Hello Darkness: The Return of Madness

I began to apply for jobs in publishing, but I was always either under-educated or over-qualified. I resigned from Thomas Todd, and got a job as taxicab driver. One evening, I went mad again. The magical world unfolded, a domain of brilliant light and color. Just as in the other times when I became manic, it was Mahamudra. But, inevitably, my mind spun way out of control and my neighbors complainedÖThe police broke into my apartment. They drove me to Mass Mental Center.

• Lessons:

  • Driving the cab, I developed kinship with people of other minorities.

• Applications:

  • Persons who experience mental illness for the first time when they are in their late teens often have their education and career plans prematurely interrupted. Attention should be paid to developmental and educational tasks that need to be resumed.
  • The process of committing people to a mental hospital is generally brutal and traumatizing. If such a commitment is truly necessary, it would be good to devise a system that would employ peer advocates or other persons trained in dealing with people who are experiencing psychosis.

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