When writing autobiographically about one’s mental health experiences it is difficult to walk the fine line of providing enough context to allow the reader to have a grasp of the thought patterns someone experiencing mental health struggles may be going through, without oversharing to the point that one is degrading their character. However, if one gains access to a patient’s records, everything will be laid out in a clinical, matter of fact manner that will paint the patient in the worst light anyway.

I am writing to give the reader some insight as to what goes on inside the head of the mentally insane while also laying bare some of the questions or events that led me there and that I suspect will always remain unanswered.

A lot of what I write about is very ugly and if I focused solely on my hospital visits would no doubt leave the writer with a negative impression. There is ofcourse a level of vanity to any autobiographical work, and mine is no different. In this blog I write also of stories along the journey to paint a broader picture of myself, hopefully one of a typical young man, while perhaps cocky and arrogant, was also caring, bold and ambitious, and while blessed in many ways was also struggling with many issues those coming of age and forging themselves face.

I hope that in my writing the reader can forgive me for my transgressions and come to understand the actions through my own spiraling and often persecuted thoughts, and while this does not dismiss the actions, they can be accepted as that of someone who was sick and needed some help.

I have pinned this and my first post to the top of the blog, as these posts provide some insight into my motivations and my experience. After reading these posts, I recommend the reader to start at the bottom of the blog, as the writting has been done in mostly a chronological order.

I hope you find this blog both informing, engaging and pleasurable to read.

Michael Eric Austin