My strength comes from nature, poetry, recharging away from people immersed in wilderness, the adventure of traveling someplace new, even if it’s a new hiking trail. My son’s story has been a slow crisis for 3.5 years now, and even though his future is unknown because of his anosognosia, I feel I have done as much as I could to educate him and the professionals around him. I cannot do more. I advocate for policy change now that will help fix the decades of bad policies made by under informed lawmakers. I hope my son’s story serves as a cautionary tale of how backward our treatment system is. I’m at peace that I tried everything I could. Now, it’s time to take care of my other son and family members. His fate is in the hands of the legal system now.

I’m challenged by the acceptance of how enormous this crisis in our country is and how little is changing for the better. I hear judges, lawyers and even medical professionals mistake my son’s intellect for sanity. My son cannot convince anyone he is fine during extreme psychosis, but the rest of the time he can. The problem is getting a crisis worker in front of him to witness it. This has only happened three times since onset out of 20 failed attempts. Anosognosia is our greatest challenge. I worry he may hurt someone again during extreme psychosis. My advocacy work with NSSC gives me strength, as well as my boyfriend and family. I hope for a day when everyone knows what fixed false beliefs, hallucinations and anosognosia mean, so that no one will stand in our way for the policy reforms needed.