My Recovery Story

Abstract

This is an autobiographical story in which Charles Feldman grows up absurd, wants to be a hippie, is briefly involved in a socialist organization, comes down with schizophrenia, doesn't realize at first that he has an illness, suffers at the hands of an incompetent psychiatrist, gets better treatment with new providers, comes to terms with the illness, advocates on behalf of people living with mental illness, and resolves his existential identity crisis by finding a spiritual home in the Vedanta movement, which provides the culmination of his recovery.

Keywords:

• hippie
• identity crisis
• schizophrenia
• advocacy
• Vedanta