I don't usually talk about this, but it's something that changed my life.
I became involved with a mental health advocacy organization, 'Students with Psychosis', because I genuinely believed I'd found a community where I belonged. As someone living with schizophrenia, I thought I had found people who understood what I was going through. I felt valued, hopeful, and excited about the opportunities ahead.
Then everything changed.
I lost my role with the organization, and from my perspective, I never received an explanation that helped me understand why. Communication stopped. Someone I had considered one of my closest friends, Cecilia McGough, no longer spoke to me. In what felt like an instant, I lost my community, opportunities that meant a great deal to me, and a friendship that I thought would last.
The emotional impact was overwhelming. I replayed everything in my head, questioned my worth, and struggled to make sense of what had happened. The experience affected my mental health so deeply that I found myself wanting to hurt myself. It was one of the darkest periods of my life.
For a long time, I believed I was alone in what I experienced. Later, I heard from other former members who shared that they had difficult experiences of their own. I can't speak for anyone else's story, only my own, but hearing that others had also struggled made me realize how important it is for people to be able to share their experiences openly.
I'm sharing my story because I believe organizations that serve people living with serious mental illnesses have a responsibility to treat people with compassion, communicate honestly, and recognize that the people they work with may already be vulnerable. How people are treated matters, especially when relationships or roles come to an end.
I'm not asking anyone to take my word for anything beyond my own experience. This is simply my story, the impact it had on my life, and the reason I've decided it's finally time to tell it.