Every time I, as a psychologist, have to talk about mental health, I literally cringe...There is so much to be said about 'normal' that I know struggle with what society has defined as success and health.

Fifteen years ago I had to do one of the most difficult things in my life: I had to press charges on my brother. 

He had been struggling with psychotic episodes for 6 years at that time and he had gone off medication when a social worker said to him that maybe he was not schizophrenic at all… because he was ‘doing SO well’.

He, of course ecstatic because of this news, dumped his meds and a year later I had a knife on my throat.

I stayed calm, trusted that he didn’t really want to hurt me, and managed to run to my car, lock myself in and call the police.

(Choking up already as Iam writing this. No matter how often I talk or write about this, it still hurts. I am talking about my little brother here. I love him deeply. This was breaking my heart to say...