Ward D

by Freida McFadden

A mental health diagnosis is not a death sentence. All the patients in this unit are just trying to get better.

After all, if you meet someone who is truly mentally ill, that’s the only way to know that you’re sane.

I heard that you were… you know…” “Hearing voices?” “Well. Yes.” “That’s right.” His eyes make contact with mine. “For a few months now.” “And the voices were… saying things?” One corner of his lips turns up. “Yes. As voices often do.”

How does somebody get to the point where their brain stops functioning like a normal brain? That their reality completely breaks from the reality that every other person in the world lives in? And what’s to stop it from happening to anyone else?

Whenever I pick up a book, it’s like an escape. For an hour or two, I get to be part of the book world instead of my own much more boring world.