At HealthCentral in March and April and in the coming months:

I’ve written and I’ll continue to write news articles about strategies for coping with symptoms.

I understand that a lot of people still have symptoms so I’ve decided to focus on strategies for managing symptoms.

My self-help books will give tactics for individuals living with mental illnesses who might have symptoms or might not have symptoms, either way.

Yet I don’t think a person should have to live with symptoms if they don’t have to.

It’s my contention that remission is a worthy goal to shoot for. And the quicker you get treated, it’s possible you’ll achieve remission quickly.

You shouldn’t have to suffer endlessly because treatment was delayed to the point where your symptoms are severe and won’t go away at all. You shouldn’t have to live with symptoms if you don’t have to.

The better able you are to minimize how symptoms disrupt your life: the easier it will be to function in the world, set goals and achieve them, and to have an easier time of it in your everyday life.

My platform is that getting the right treatment right away can result in a better outcome in life for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia,bipolar, and other mental illnesses.

I was hospitalized for a total of just under five weeks. It doesn’t upset me that I had a break. What I’m compelled to speak out against is cookie-cutter treatment of individuals with mental illnesses.

In 1987, when I was first diagnosed, I was shunted into a community mental health system ill-equipped to help a young person like me that had so much potential. I wrote about this before: how my quiet nature was seen as aberrant; how I had to fight to be taken seriously in my goal of living on my own and obtaining a full-time job.

No one-size-fits-all-treatment can exist. You need to talk to your treatment providers in an open, honest dialogue to arrive at the best treatment for your needs at this moment in time.

A friend with schizophrenia who rose up to be the CEO of corporations had a psychiatrist tell him, “Don’t make up a story about being a CEO to feel better about having schizophrenia.”

This was circa 2004: too late in the history of the recovery movement for a treatment provider to be reinforcing to his patient that there’s not much you can do if you have this illness.

I want to be a cheerleader for people diagnosed with mental illnesses, regardless of whether or not you have symptoms.

This friend I talk about heard voices for 10 years. His first doctor tried every new drug that came out until they found the medication that totally stopped the voices.

The goal is to not give up the fight to have a better life.

I’ll end here by telling readers you’re not doomed to a life of disability.

You can have a better life.