What one person calls a psychotic break, another calls a break for inner freedom. Sometimes people ‘leave reality' because there is an older, truer reality that wants to come through to be healed. They can only push it down for so long, before it pushes up against them, demanding to be seen and resolved. What one person calls reality, another calls a well-mannered lie. Sometimes the most ‘well-adjusted’ person, is the one with the most skeletons in their closet. Sometimes the one with ‘mental illness’ is the one with the courage to be revealed. Their healing may take years- it can’t happen overnight because the material didn’t accumulate overnight- but it may be the bravest journey of all. As we work together to humanize this shaming world, may we seek to understand and support those who are struggling with ‘mental illness’. They may well be the only ones who can show us how to integrate old realities with new ones. They may be the most honest ones among us. They may well be our trail-blazers for a more authentic life. - Jeff Brown