“So often,” says Jose Villiard Diaz, weekend anchor of the NBC Nightly News, “the good news doesn’t get as much attention as the bad.” Accordingly, NBC Nightly News frequently closes with a segment introduced as “there’s good news tonight.” In my blogs, I have, like newscasters, tended to discuss troubling topics, particularly stigma, and, as a result, I may be leading readers to believe that all is grim in the lives of people with mental health conditions. But there are also many stories of resilience and success that both challenge stereotypes and confirm that people with mental health conditions can improve, recover, lead satisfying lives, and contribute to their communities. In the current blog, then, I want to tell some of those stories.
Kay Redfield Jamison began to experience symptoms of bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depressive disorder) as a high school student. Despite her symptoms, she was able to complete college and graduate school and earn a position as an Assistant Professor at UCLA. However, her bipolar disorder took a heavy toll. In manic episodes, Jamison worked days without sleep, went on spending sprees, and struggled with maintaining a coherent line of thinking. Between episodes, she experienced severe depressions and attempted suicide. Like many individuals with mental health conditions, Jamison tended to deny and keep hidden her bipolar disorder, disclosing it only to a few trusted people around her. However, she ultimately decided that it was important to be open about her mental health condition and wrote An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (1995), candidly describing her experiences. “I am tired of hiding,” Dr. Jamison wrote, “tired of misspent and knotted energies, tired of the hypocrisy, and tired of acting as though I have something to hide.” The memoir quickly became a best-seller, and Jamison became a vocal and visible advocate for better understanding and acceptance of mental health conditions. Although continuing to experience symptoms from time to time, she has maintained a very active and successful career, with the help of medication, therapy, and support from friends, family, and colleagues. She is the author of multiple books, including Touched by Fire (an examination of the possible relationship between bipolar disorder and creativity) and Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. Dr. Jamison was a 2001 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” and currently is a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Fred Frese was a young man in the Marine Corp when he began to develop delusions which plagued him throughout most of his life. Among those delusions were beliefs that enemies of the U.S. had hypnotized military officers and other important people, that he was being spied on, and that he was being transformed into a tritium atom that could destroy the universe. Frese was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and hospitalized many times over the next ten years. However, with medication, support (especially from his wife and lifetime partner), and careful monitoring of his mental health, his symptoms stabilized and he entered graduate school, earning a doctorate in clinical psychology. Ironically, Frese eventually became Director of Psychology at one of the institutions at which he had been hospitalized, occasionally taking time off when his symptoms reemerged. After many years of trying to conceal his schizophrenia, Frese began disclosing and speaking to others about his experiences and insights. “We must stand up, identify ourselves, and be proud that we have been able to overcome what has been characterized as one of the most devastating of all disabilities,” he wrote in an article in Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere (May/June 2009, Vol. 28, No. 3: 880-886). Frese became a powerful and well-respected advocate for people with mental health conditions, advising advocacy groups and government panels, publishing countless articles, and speaking to audiences around the world about himself and about insights gained from living with schizophrenia. A sampling of his moving, witty, and provocative talks can be found on YouTube or through a simple Google search.
Many others have told similarly compelling stories of their challenges with mental health conditions. Best-selling author Andrew Solomon described his often overwhelming experiences with depression in his widely praised book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, winner of the 2001 National Book Award (and multiple other literary and mental health awards). In addition to authoring Noonday Demon and other prize-winning books, Solomon is an activist in LGBT+ rights, a frequent contributor of articles for The New Yorker, and a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical School. Elyn Saks revealed her early and ongoing struggle with schizophrenia in her award-winning memoir, The Center Cannot Hold. Although intense symptoms often disrupted her law school studies, Saks completed her law degree and is now an Associate Dean and Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California. The story of John Nash, a gifted mathematician living with schizophrenia, whose ideas were sufficiently ground-breaking that he received a Nobel Prize, is well-known because of the best-selling book and Academy-Award-winning film about his life and his work, A Beautiful Mind.
The above individuals are, of course, extraordinary, and their successes are beyond what most of us are likely to achieve. One might be tempted, then, to believe that only extraordinary people are able to overcome the challenges of mental health conditions. Not so. Our world is full of ordinary people who, despite living with mental health conditions, have success stories to tell. One also might mistakenly infer from the above examples, that “success” requires national or international recognition, wealth accumulation, or other aspects of high social status. Not so. Success may be as simple as returning to work, rediscovering the joys of leisure activities, feeling better about oneself, being a better partner and/or parent, or contributing to one’s community, among so many other meaningful accomplishments.
The New York Times, for example, recently featured an article about Arvind Sooknanan, the 26-year-old son of Guyanese immigrants who had had 20 psychiatric hospitalizations before he was out of his teens, many times brought to the hospital in handcuffs, and who had spent much time living on the streets of New York. He had twice entered college but had been asked to leave each time because of mental health episodes, which included hallucinations and mood changes. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and managed to find his way to Fountain House, a “clubhouse” program run for, and partly by, people with mental health conditions. At Fountain House, his symptoms diminished, and he tried college again. One of his professors, Jenifer Rajkumar, asked him to provide office help for a series of immigrant trainings she was organizing and was so impressed with his work that she asked him to assist with her campaign for State Assembly in 2020 (which she won). Mr. Sooknanan worked tirelessly and effectively, even during periods when he was again hospitalized, and he was asked to serve as Ms. Rajkumar’s senior campaign advisor in her bid to become public advocate of New York City. Sooknanan talks of hope that he did not have before, even as he recognizes the continuing struggle he may have with his mental health condition. “I started accepting,” he says “that I was going to have manic episodes, psychotic episodes. And I’m going to feel down; I am going to hear voices. And that’s OK. I will still be able to live life. I’ll still be able to achieve whatever goals I set out to achieve.” For the full story, see https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/nyregion/nyc-public-advocate-rajkumar-sooknanan-mental-health.html.
Dale Phillips finished college with top grades, got a job with a prestigious marketing company, and planned to marry his college girlfriend. However, Phillips also began to experience episodes during which he couldn’t breathe, think, or talk, and thought he was going to die. He became reluctant to leave his house for fear he would have another of these panic attacks in public. He also continued to deny that he needed help. “Anxiety? Panic?” he said to himself. “Those were issues for people who couldn’t cope with life’s challenges, not for someone like me.” But Dale eventually came to accept and seek help. With medication and individual and group therapy, his panic episodes decreased and his self-acceptance increased. He moved to a less stressful job and got back in touch with friends he had been avoiding. He became involved with one of the mental health organizations in his community, writing and speaking about his mental health experiences as a way to encourage others to do the same. “Every time we talk about our challenges,” he wrote, “we tear down the walls that prevent many people from seeking the help they need.”
Note: Dale’s story is from Recovery Diaries, a website devoted to telling such stories. (https://recoverydiaries.org/mental-health-first-person-essays), more specifically to providing an opportunity for people who have experienced mental health challenges to tell their own stories. This website is one of an increasing number that post personal stories by and about a diverse array of people who have recovered—or are working toward recovery—from mental health conditions. More stories, for example, can be found on NAMI’s (formerly The National Alliance on Mental Illness) website (https://www.nami.org/blog-type/personal-stories) or the website of the National Empowerment Center (https://power2u.org/recovery-stories) or the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (https://www.adaa.org/educational-resources/from-our-community/stories-of-triumph). Mental Health Connecticut, as part of its “Let’s Face It” initiatives, similarly collects mental health stories from people in Connecticut, from which readers can learn even more about the mental health challenges and successes of people in their communities (https://www.mhconn.org/education/lets-face-it-2).
As the Nightly News anchors now regularly assert, then, “there’s good news.” The stories above, like countless other stories one can find in books, websites, videos, and other mental health conversations, verify that recovery, success, and life satisfaction are indeed attainable for those living with mental health challenges.
Otto Wahl, Ph.D.
MHCT Development Committee Member
