Apolar, One Of'schizophrenic: Schizoaffective?

Not just bipolar, not just schizophrenic: schizoaffective. Lori, one of the authors, starts hearing voices and hallucinating in her preteens. She knows something might be wrong, but isn’t sure what. At one time she even believes that she must be possessed.

She’s able to hide her “voices” and extreme moods fairly well until her late college years. At this time, the symptoms become increasingly worse. She becomes depressed and tortured by the voices. Her 3.9 GPA, highly admired and seemingly sociable, happy life comes to a screeching halt with a suicide attempt. She couldn’t take it anymore.

From here on she is transferred in and out of hospitals and clinics. She is put on various medications at different times. She does have a period or two where she seems to get better. (But she began to self-medicate with coke.) Ironically, she even starts working at hospitals, including the one she stayed at. Nonetheless her disease becomes increasingly worse. However, she is brought to an alternative program and given experimental medication. Sorry to spoil the ending, but with therapy, she becomes better. She, along with her family, friends, and doctors, all compile this book. True story.

“When I heard the Voices yelling such terrible things, I grew afraid to make eye contact with the people I was with. I was afraid they had heard the Voices and now knew the terrible secrets about me that they were revealing. [...] I became extremely self-conscious in front of everyone for fear they too would nail me to a taunting cross.” (pg. 22 – Lori)
“Poor people are crazy, they say, and rich people are eccentric. My mother was rich, and so she was allowed

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