Upon discharge from Chattahoochee, I was relocated to Willow Way - a residential facility and day program. It was okay, but like many half-way houses - overcrowded and underfunded.  The staff members were great.  However, when we ventured into the local community, we were often met with  suspicion and/or crude remarks.  I couldn't take it.  I soon became suicidal, checking myself into psychiatric services of the Humana Hospital.  I remember the inspiration and kindness, especially of Fl0rence and Troy, the charge nurse and a staff member.  However, the medical treatment/medication was very inferior.  Doctors there simply "pumped me up" with anti-depressants.   I was stumbling, falling and most of the time didn't know what I was doing.  I can understand the reason most of the public considers many clients of mental health services "out to lunch":   I know that I was "out to lunch" for almost two decades (hallucinating both visually and audibly)  until I confided in my psychiatrist (ARNP), Pat Christie that I  was slowly, but surely, losing my mind.  Mind you, I am a mentally strong person:  I won the Freedoms Foundation Medal during that period of approximately 20 years of misdiagnosis, was Co-Director of Friends of the Disabled, was Advocate/Editor of OASIS Florida and Vice-President of Brain Injury Connection during that time, earned my Ph.D.s,  etc.. However, most importantly was the familial support that I received.  They insisted repeatedly that my problem was neurological, rather than psychological/psychiatric.  Both are true:  I have bipolar disorder (  also known as manic depression,  a mental illness that brings severe high and low moods and changes in sleep, energy, thinking, and behavior.) and organic affective disorder (An organic mental disorder, also known as organic brain syndrome or chronic organic brain syndrome, is a form of decreased mental function due to a medical or physical disease, rather than a psychiatric illness. This differs from dementia. While mental or behavioral abnormalities related to the dysfunction can be permanent, treating the disease early may prevent permanent damage in addition to fully restoring mental functions. An organic cause to brain dysfunction is suspected when there is no indication of a clearly defined psychiatric or "inorganic" cause, such as a mood disorder) caused by the van/pedestrian accident of 11.19.1972

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