Share Your Story

Thousands of people have let us know how much People Say I'm Crazy has meant to them: how it made them feel less alone, how it gave them hope, and how it fosters compassion and understanding.

We've heard from people like John, suffering from a mental illness. We've heard from their families and friends. We've heard from mental health professionals. We've even heard from those who may not be personally affected by the disease, but who nonetheless were touched and even changed by the film. They all have a story to share.

We hope you will share how mental illness has touched your life.

Here you can share your story, and read the stories of others. We can all learn so much from each other.

Highlights from Your Stories:

Story topics: mother, NAMI, psychosis, recovery, teacher

In 1994, I was a mother of two, a Montessori teacher, and writer who was suddenly thrust into a world of psychosis. I was a trained therapist who became an incoherent stranger to herself and a devoted wife who separated from my husband overnight and had two affairs that were as brief as my manic episode of that time. Mine has been a journey of forbidden happiness, grandiosity, paranoia as well as delusions, and at its worst, nearly fatal suicide attempts. When I was 34 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a psychotic breakdown to a non-functioning state.

It took me thirteen years of treatment, education, and faith in mental heath professionals to reach stability and face my mental illness head on. As of this writing, I am on recovery and committed to working with NAMI as a Stigma Buster, a presenter for a program called In Our Own Voice. I hope to offer hope to those who live in the shadows of mental illness by helping erase the faceless anonymity of bipolar disorder. All my writings have the same purpose and both my poetry and prose speak of the struggles but also of the gains of suffering from a mental illness.

People Say I’m Crazy is an inspiring movie who certainly helps people who are having difficulty accepting their diagnosis or who have lost faith that they can reach stability. Families who travel this arduous road will benefit from this masterpiece, which should also appeal to anyone searching for information and enlightment on mental illness and its recovery process.

- From a writer in Los Angeles
Story topics: bipolar, depression, honest, self

I just now watched "People Say I'm Crazy"--seriously just ten minutes ago.  Wow.

So many people dramatize the facts of schizophrenia and end up delivering a very skewed view of it to the public.  It just ends up furthering people's unfounded fear of mental illness and people afflicted with it. 

I personally have struggled throughout my life with depression and bipolar disorder, from the time that I was 11 and diagnosed.  It took until I was 24 years old to find the right mix of medications that stabilized me and had acceptable side effects in order for me to move on with my life, get married, have children, and actually enjoy the process of being alive each day. 

It was so refreshing to see someone be honest with themselves and the camera, do things that are by nature so difficult to do in front of the camera, and let us in on their lives.  This really is reality television and I don’t think I’ve ever seen QUALITY like this on the airwaves.

Beyond all of my praise for the film, I want to thank John, personally, for allowing us a look inside his life.  He emotes so well on film that it was evident how hard some of the process was for him, and I felt conflicted right along with him, even though I was enjoying the film.  I hope that all of the praise he has gotten from the results of it – and the knowledge that he’s giving every viewer an amazing gift - has been repayment for his struggle.

- a mom
Story topics: crazy, love, normal

I was crazy from October 2005 through June 09, of 2010. Which is almost five years.

I am no longer crazy, and I would like to say, when the "craziness" goes, you'll know.

I need the crazy person to know and whoever supports the crazy person, that people do haze and tease and bully because of the craziness. And recovery from the craziness is possible. Like I said I was only crazy for almost five years, I was 16 it stopped at 21, people were hoping I'd stay that way, but I knew I would recover. I am NOT the person I was at 16 I've grown. And I'm ready to live the life I want to live. I AM NO LONGER CRAZY, and to the "crazy" person, it feels exactly how you think to not be crazy.

You do feel crazy.

They will induce the crazy.

They will laugh.

Family and friends will turn their back.

Take life however you wish whenever you're sane or normal or whatever again.

I'm sane at the moment and I Still hear voices becuase of people.

But i choose to love and accept them, I remember life now.

Good luck, don't end it, keep pushing for what you want. be cool. be calm. you'll be fine.

some people will show genuine love.

the story seems to be the same.

love and peace. continue.

- a former crazy "tell the 'crazy' do his or her thing" Hip-Hop.
Story topics: marijuana, medication, murder, recovery, schizophrenia, suicide

I am a real hip hop fan and was influenced by the rappers smoking marijuana. i started smoking the stuff through waterpipes every day and this lead to a mental illness called schizofrenia. The only thing is that i didn't know i had schizofrenia for many years.

i was having thoughts of suicide and self loathing for a long time. i just kept going with my butcher apprenticeship and kept these thoughts to myself. these thoughts soon turned homicidal. I wanted to commit suicide with a monsterous passion and these sick thoughts put me right on edge.

i was sure that people were trying to bring my mood down and therefore personally messing with me. I thought that i was the wrong person to mess with and wanted to physically hurt these people. these thoughts turned murderous and i literally wanted to kill these people who weren't even messing with me. it was part of my shizofrenia.

i was thinking about killing myself every single day and therefore my whole world was surrounded by black. my problem was not the guts to actually take the final step and kill myself, it was that i didn't have a method that i was comfortable with. i didn't want to attempt to kill myself and live therefore making me into what i thought would be a social outcast and a weak sort of person or physically disformed. i wanted the death to be final. on many occasions if i had a gun i would have definatrly shot myself in the head. guatrenteed death and also painless. i was scared of the pain associated with slicing my wrists.

I refused to get help by telling people of these dangerous thoughts and thought i had to man up and get on with me life by going to work even though i was going through absolute hell.

as my schizofrenia got worse i started believing really strange concepts and still had a violent urge to kill people. i had formed a conception that i was a laughing stock not only at my workplace and family but also in my social circles and the more i thought of this the more i wanted to kill.

i started thinking that people at my work were talking in code about me and that all of these words were going over my head but that they were all laughing at me. i was thinking they didn't know who they were fuc*ing with and fantisized about killing them for most of the day.

i came soooo close to taking over the butchershop with a knife, taking the workers as hostage and charging the cops with a knife when they came so that i could be killed with their guns. i fantisized about this alot and was completely ready to flip out at them if they pushed me in any way.

i found myself getting incredibly angry at work to the point where i desperatly wanted to kill and maim. the only thing stopping me was prison.

i wanted out of my job but didn't want to look weak infront of my family by quitting.

i was finally suspended when i had a run in with my boss and decided i wasn't going back. i was given alot of crap from my family for not working and constantly abused by my older brother for being lazy and living off the parents when he had to work even though he knew i was going through suicidal thoughts and had issues. this made me feel like sh*t.

i could have signed up for the australian dole but didn't know how to get it and was in no mindframe to deal with office people and the like. my parents didn't help me get the dole and i found myself dirt poor.

my family were never very well off and couldn't afford a stocked cupboard and drink other then water. i found myself hungry, cold (no heating, middle of winter) suicidal and homicidal. i was literally going through mental hell. i always had a great, large plate for tea but not long after shopping day the noodles that were there for lunches were gone. cerial was always there but i just did not feel like eating the low end cerials that were in the cupboard

my condition worsened.

i started beliveing that i was trapped into an incredible conspiracy where i was some kind of messiah and the evil people of the world were trying to eliminate me. i started questioning wether my parents were my real parents and deeply belived my father was trying to make me commit suicide and this was the course of my suicidal thougths. i was deeply deeply hurt by this delusion and desperattly wanted to get him back for the pain i imagined he caused me.
 schizofenia is a terrible, terrible thing.

My brother was pissed off that he had to work and i didn't so wouldn't even give me fifty cents.

he would drink and eat infront of me without giving me a single thing. this messed with me deeply. i was now sure that he wanted me to commit suicide.

i started staying up all night and fantasizing about killing my father and brother. i would think myself into a rage and be ready to stab them but the fear of prison would always stop me from going through with it. if i had a gun i would have shot them and then i could have escaped the consequences by killing myself.

I ended up assulting my brother and father and found my self on the streets with little suppirt from mates as i had become to strange to be around them.

(i punched my dad and brother in the stomach and on another occasion fought my brother resulying in punching him in the face several times when he was on the ground) this messed him up.

i was quite a drinker like most teenagers are and feeling as terrible as i did i wanted more then anything to get drunk. my brother would get drunk infront of me and wouldn't give me a single beer. i hadn't had a single beer for months and when he finally gave me a beer one day i was over the moon. i thought we would drink up together. he refused to give me any more and this taste made me want to get drunk more then ever. i chucked something at him swore at him and called him names. he wanted to fight from my provoking. i said "lets fight then). he worked himself into a rage and went out side smaking his fist into his palms, really worked up. i didn't like my chances and locked him outside. when he got back inside we started pushing and i headbutted him. i was quick with the fists and let out my anger into his face.

(the end result is that i didn't leave any marks but he says it messed him up in the head.)

my parents then changed the locks on me and i was sleeping in parks and infront of buildings on cardboard boxes. my parents would give me 50 dollars when i went around there but wouldn't let me sleep on the premise. if i tried they would call the police.

There was a homeless centre that i stayed in for two nights but i was so mentally ill i thought i was under surveilance and that the people there were trying to make me commit sucide. these paranoid thoughts resulted in tears and i vowed to never come back.

one morning i was walking down a city main street named Hinely with all my bags of clothes and i said to a couple of guys "whats up c*nts. they punched me in the jaw and dropped me to the ground. the fight was knocked out of me and i put up the peace sign so they they wouldn't finish me off with their boots. they walked off.

when i finally got my first dole payment (it took me two weeks) i took up residence at a homeless center.

I visited some people i knew one night but my mentally ill mind somehow came to the conclusion that the guys there were abusing one of the girls living there. (delusion). when he rubbed a wet flannel in her face i stuck up for her and threatened to smash the guy if he didn't leave her alone. He told me to step outside where he said he would bash me. I was outnumbered three to one. I punched him in the face and then got him in a headlock. i started punching the hell out of the top of his head and the girl who i thought i stuck up for came at me with a pole. she told me to get the f*ck out of there and i said "alright, I'm leaving" i thought that was the end of that.

as i was walking down the street i heard the three dudes behind me. i ducked into a persons front yard and looked for a weapon. there was nothing except a massive pot. i picked it up and told them that if they came any closer i would kill one of them. they kept coming closer and i through the pot at a guy (dislocated his shoulder) the other two were armed with beer bottles.

they cornered me on a doorstep and threw the bottles at my face. i managed to block each one with each hand and ended up gushing out with blood. the fight was knocked out of me and i told them to "just piss off".

when i got back to the homeless center i took a shower and washed the blood off. i didn't want to make a fuss so i didn't wake anyone up. anyways the fire alarm started going off (someone was smoking in their room) what a stroke of luck this was, now everyone was up i could get them to bandage me up. the worker bandaged me up and sealed the bandage with duck tape. i went to sleep.

i was soon kicked out of their for flipping out at a staff member (an ex boxer) who threatened to smash my head in.

i walked to my grandpa's house and he put me up for the night. it took me alot of courage to go there as i wasn't sure what the parents had told my relatives about the assults on my family. (i even slapped my mother)

i ended up getting my grandpas caravan after spending almost a week in a tents.

i still had a murderous rage building up inside of me and had to hold myself back from killing random strangers i'm sure were fuc*ing with me.

My father tryed to get me help but there wasn't mush he could do as i was top notch at acting normal and keeping my twisted thoughts to myself.

words cannot describe the delusional thoughts i was having and the mental hell i was experienceing but the delusions go deep, very deep (i won't get into them, i could write a book on my twisted thoughts).

my father ended up coaxing me to go to a meeting that he said would get me a house and when i got there, there were three people who were trying to get me to speak my mind. one of the chicks there was hot and i started to tell them of my murderous thoughts. i was kinda tring to impress the blonde.

i was at the point where i knew i needed help but didn't want to get locked up so even though i knew something would happen when i spoke my mind i kind of wanted some sort of help.

I was telling these people that i was on my way to becoming a hitman and would have no problem in killing anyone of them right now. I told them that i was a special kind of person when it came to murder and would have no problem killing a child if i had to. thats the way i felt. filled with a murderous rage and completely menatlly sick and twisted.

the result is that i was locked up in the psyche ward via ambulance and police escort and stayed locked up there untill i was better.

i went back to my caravan and saw completely through every delusional thought i ever had. it must of been the rispiridone medication they put me on. i still held on to the delusions a little bit and wasn't completely sure if my dad was evil or not but over time my mental health improved and i didn't believe any of the delusions that i once suffered even in the slightest.

i am now fully recovered and my old sick self has been bought back to health in the mind.

i have support workers who help with anything and have just stopped regular appointments with the doctor.

i am now a caring and loving person thanks to my spiritual studies and love my parents as much as i now love myself. i have gotten over my suicidal fantasies and no longer have any murderous thoughts at all

the doctors say i am fully recovered and no longer a threat to anyone. i am back to the same healthy happy person that i was before i became mentally ill.

the wonders of medication. and thats my story.

thanx for reading
Casey Gray

- Casey Gray 22 yr recoverd schizophrenic
Story topics: family, marjiuana, medication, paranoia, recovery, schizophrenia, suicide

I am a real hip hop fan and was influenced by the rappers smoking marijuana. i started smoking the stuff through waterpipes every day and this lead to a mental illness called schizofrenia. The only thing is that i didn't know i had schizofrenia for many years.

i was having thoughts of suicide and self loathing for a long time. i just kept going with my butcher apprenticeship and kept these thoughts to myself. these thoughts soon turned homicidal. I wanted to commit suicide with a monsterous passion and these sick thoughts put me right on edge.

i was sure that people were trying to bring my mood down and therefore personally messing with me. I thought that i was the wrong person to mess with and wanted to physically hurt these people. these thoughts turned murderous and i literally wanted to kill these people who weren't even messing with me. it was part of my shizofrenia.

i was thinking about killing myself every single day and therefore my whole world was surrounded by black. my problem was not the guts to actually take the final step and kill myself, it was that i didn't have a method that i was comfortable with. i didn't want to attempt to kill myself and live therefore making me into what i thought would be a social outcast and a weak sort of person or physically disformed. i wanted the death to be final. on many occasions if i had a gun i would have definatrly shot myself in the head. guatrenteed death and also painless. i was scared of the pain associated with slicing my wrists.

I refused to get help by telling people of these dangerous thoughts and thought i had to man up and get on with me life by going to work even though i was going through absolute hell.

as my schizofrenia got worse i started believing really strange concepts and still had a violent urge to kill people. i had formed a conception that i was a laughing stock not only at my workplace and family but also in my social circles and the more i thought of this the more i wanted to kill.

i started thinking that people at my work were talking in code about me and that all of these words were going over my head but that they were all laughing at me. i was thinking they didn't know who they were fuc*ing with and fantisized about killing them for most of the day.

i came soooo close to taking over the butchershop with a knife, taking the workers as hostage and charging the cops with a knife when they came so that i could be killed with their guns. i fantisized about this alot and was completely ready to flip out at them if they pushed me in any way.

i found myself getting incredibly angry at work to the point where i desperatly wanted to kill and maim. the only thing stopping me was prison.

i wanted out of my job but didn't want to look weak infront of my family by quitting.

i was finally suspended when i had a run in with my boss and decided i wasn't going back. i was given alot of crap from my family for not working and constantly abused by my older brother for being lazy and living off the parents when he had to work even though he knew i was going through suicidal thoughts and had issues. this made me feel like sh*t.

i could have signed up for the australian dole but didn't know how to get it and was in no mindframe to deal with office people and the like. my parents didn't help me get the dole and i found myself dirt poor.

my family were never very well off and couldn't afford a stocked cupboard and drink other then water. i found myself hungry, cold (no heating, middle of winter) suicidal and homicidal. i was literally going through mental hell. i always had a great, large plate for tea but not long after shopping day the noodles that were there for lunches were gone. cerial was always there but i just did not feel like eating the low end cerials that were in the cupboard

my condition worsened.

i started beliveing that i was trapped into an incredible conspiracy where i was some kind of messiah and the evil people of the world were trying to eliminate me. i started questioning wether my parents were my real parents and deeply belived my father was trying to make me commit suicide and this was the course of my suicidal thougths. i was deeply deeply hurt by this delusion and desperattly wanted to get him back for the pain i imagined he caused me.
 schizofenia is a terrible, terrible thing.

My brother was pissed off that he had to work and i didn't so wouldn't even give me fifty cents.

he would drink and eat infront of me without giving me a single thing. this messed with me deeply. i was now sure that he wanted me to commit suicide.

i started staying up all night and fantasizing about killing my father and brother. i would think myself into a rage and be ready to stab them but the fear of prison would always stop me from going through with it. if i had a gun i would have shot them and then i could have escaped the consequences by killing myself.

I ended up assulting my brother and father and found my self on the streets with little suppirt from mates as i had become to strange to be around them.

(i punched my dad and brother in the stomach and on another occasion fought my brother resulying in punching him in the face several times when he was on the ground) this messed him up.

i was quite a drinker like most teenagers are and feeling as terrible as i did i wanted more then anything to get drunk. my brother would get drunk infront of me and wouldn't give me a single beer. i hadn't had a single beer for months and when he finally gave me a beer one day i was over the moon. i thought we would drink up together. he refused to give me any more and this taste made me want to get drunk more then ever. i chucked something at him swore at him and called him names. he wanted to fight from my provoking. i said "lets fight then). he worked himself into a rage and went out side smaking his fist into his palms, really worked up. i didn't like my chances and locked him outside. when he got back inside we started pushing and i headbutted him. i was quick with the fists and let out my anger into his face.

(the end result is that i didn't leave any marks but he says it messed him up in the head.)

my parents then changed the locks on me and i was sleeping in parks and infront of buildings on cardboard boxes. my parents would give me 50 dollars when i went around there but wouldn't let me sleep on the premise. if i tried they would call the police.

There was a homeless centre that i stayed in for two nights but i was so mentally ill i thought i was under surveilance and that the people there were trying to make me commit sucide. these paranoid thoughts resulted in tears and i vowed to never come back.

one morning i was walking down a city main street named Hinely with all my bags of clothes and i said to a couple of guys "whats up c*nts. they punched me in the jaw and dropped me to the ground. the fight was knocked out of me and i put up the peace sign so they they wouldn't finish me off with their boots. they walked off.

when i finally got my first dole payment (it took me two weeks) i took up residence at a homeless center.

I visited some people i knew one night but my mentally ill mind somehow came to the conclusion that the guys there were abusing one of the girls living there. (delusion). when he rubbed a wet flannel in her face i stuck up for her and threatened to smash the guy if he didn't leave her alone. He told me to step outside where he said he would bash me. I was outnumbered three to one. I punched him in the face and then got him in a headlock. i started punching the hell out of the top of his head and the girl who i thought i stuck up for came at me with a pole. she told me to get the f*ck out of there and i said "alright, I'm leaving" i thought that was the end of that.

as i was walking down the street i heard the three dudes behind me. i ducked into a persons front yard and looked for a weapon. there was nothing except a massive pot. i picked it up and told them that if they came any closer i would kill one of them. they kept coming closer and i through the pot at a guy (dislocated his shoulder) the other two were armed with beer bottles.

they cornered me on a doorstep and threw the bottles at my face. i managed to block each one with each hand and ended up gushing out with blood. the fight was knocked out of me and i told them to "just piss off".

when i got back to the homeless center i took a shower and washed the blood off. i didn't want to make a fuss so i didn't wake anyone up. anyways the fire alarm started going off (someone was smoking in their room) what a stroke of luck this was, now everyone was up i could get them to bandage me up. the worker bandaged me up and sealed the bandage with duck tape. i went to sleep.

i was soon kicked out of their for flipping out at a staff member (an ex boxer) who threatened to smash my head in.

i walked to my grandpa's house and he put me up for the night. it took me alot of courage to go there as i wasn't sure what the parents had told my relatives about the assults on my family. (i even slapped my mother)

i ended up getting my grandpas caravan after spending almost a week in a tents.

i still had a murderous rage building up inside of me and had to hold myself back from killing random strangers i'm sure were fuc*ing with me.

My father tryed to get me help but there wasn't mush he could do as i was top notch at acting normal and keeping my twisted thoughts to myself.

words cannot describe the delusional thoughts i was having and the mental hell i was experienceing but the delusions go deep, very deep (i won't get into them, i could write a book on my twisted thoughts).

my father ended up coaxing me to go to a meeting that he said would get me a house and when i got there, there were three people who were trying to get me to speak my mind. one of the chicks there was hot and i started to tell them of my murderous thoughts. i was kinda tring to impress the blonde.

i was at the point where i knew i needed help but didn't want to get locked up so even though i knew something would happen when i spoke my mind i kind of wanted some sort of help.

I was telling these people that i was on my way to becoming a hitman and would have no problem in killing anyone of them right now. I told them that i was a special kind of person when it came to murder and would have no problem killing a child if i had to. thats the way i felt. filled with a murderous rage and completely menatlly sick and twisted.

the result is that i was locked up in the psyche ward via ambulance and police escort and stayed locked up there untill i was better.

i went back to my caravan and saw completely through every delusional thought i ever had. it must of been the rispiridone medication they put me on. i still held on to the delusions a little bit and wasn't completely sure if my dad was evil or not but over time my mental health improved and i didn't believe any of the delusions that i once suffered even in the slightest.

i am now fully recovered and my old sick self has been bought back to health in the mind.

i have support workers who help with anything and have just stopped regular appointments with the doctor.

i am now a caring and loving person thanks to my spiritual studies and love my parents as much as i now love myself. i have gotten over my suicidal fantasies and no longer have any murderous thoughts at all

the doctors say i am fully recovered and no longer a threat to anyone. i am back to the same healthy happy person that i was before i became mentally ill.

the wonders of medication. and thats my story.

thanx for reading
Casey Gray

- Casey Gray 22 yr recoverd schizophrenic