The following excerpt is from a letter we recently received.  The writer felt that his story might help others.  We agreed.  We edited the story to accommodate our space constraints but kept out input to a bare minimum.

"It was May of 1960 when I first felt extraordinarily active, by then I was studying in a US university.  My activity was reflected mainly in sports.  I played soccer, danced and bowled but could not sleep.  It was not long before I fell into my first depression; I lost interest in sports, study, women and I wanted to do nothing.

"My friends noted changes in my personality.  I abandoned my studies, sports, parties, walks - I was depressed.  They called my father who sent me a ticket home.  I came back alone and lost from the university I loved.  My father worked hard to send me so I would have a career.  We both lost so much.  I did not know what I had.  I was worried about my parents, too.  My parents met me at the airport with hurt faces.

"The university physicians said the changes in the moon effected me, I believed they were more in the moon than myself.  My priest told me to see a psychiatrist when I got home.  I found a good psychiatrist who started me on medication.  It took two months to come back to the real world again.  For three months, I was OK and then I had two bad months but finished my schooling and worked successfully.

"In 1981, I started my first deep mania.  I did not sleep for three days.  In that tremendous moment, where I did not know myself, I was hospitalized and placed on lithium.  In the beginning, I had bad side effects but they got better and from that day to the present time I haven't felt a full blown mania.

"I was still depressed.  Nothing felt good- not working, eating, having relationships, anything!  I was living with no music at all.  I began to meditate, eat right, exercise, explore my faith, and accept my limitations and problems.  With the lithium, and after trying a number of antidepressants before I found one, I got out of a difficult hereditary disease.  The same problem from which my Uncle suffered and died.  The same problem from which my son suffered and died. ( He refused to treat his manic depression and killed himself.)

"My recommendations: 1. never give up, 2. have faith, 3. take care of yourself, 4. visit your psychiatrist, 5. practice relaxation, 6. work hard, 7. eat right and 8. pray.  After thirty years of hard fighting, I graduated with two majors and excellent averages and I have a successful career.  In these days, I feel I have control of my disease about ninety percent of the time.  I work hard and have a good family.  I am not afraid of living."  AM in SA

We are always in need of encouraging stories to share with others.
Send to:
NAFDI - RS
P.O. Box 2257
New York, NY 10116 USA