bipolar

Story topics: bipolar, depression, honest, self

I just now watched "People Say I'm Crazy"--seriously just ten minutes ago.  Wow.

So many people dramatize the facts of schizophrenia and end up delivering a very skewed view of it to the public.  It just ends up furthering people's unfounded fear of mental illness and people afflicted with it. 

I personally have struggled throughout my life with depression and bipolar disorder, from the time that I was 11 and diagnosed.  It took until I was 24 years old to find the right mix of medications that stabilized me and had acceptable side effects in order for me to move on with my life, get married, have children, and actually enjoy the process of being alive each day. 

It was so refreshing to see someone be honest with themselves and the camera, do things that are by nature so difficult to do in front of the camera, and let us in on their lives.  This really is reality television and I don’t think I’ve ever seen QUALITY like this on the airwaves.

Beyond all of my praise for the film, I want to thank John, personally, for allowing us a look inside his life.  He emotes so well on film that it was evident how hard some of the process was for him, and I felt conflicted right along with him, even though I was enjoying the film.  I hope that all of the praise he has gotten from the results of it – and the knowledge that he’s giving every viewer an amazing gift - has been repayment for his struggle.

- a mom
Story topics: bipolar, self

I was originally diagnosed schizophrenic in 1993.  The label has changed to bipolar.  I have felt all the same things that John has felt to some degree.  The film brought tears to my eyes. 

Never have I met anyone who shares similar experiences as I have.  I get paranoid, sometimes psychotic.  I deal with a lot of anxiety.  I get depressed.  In the beginning I went into a catatonic and panic state.  I've been to hospitals and half way houses.  All of them were very different. 

I am grateful to John for sharing with us his traumatic life experience.  It helped me a lot and I hope more people get to see it.  Thank you for this insight. 

- a woman in recovery
Story topics: bipolar, ocd, schizophrenia, son, tourettes, understand

I just watched People Say I'm Crazy tonight on TV.  Please pass on to John how much I appreciate him opening his mind and soul to the camera.  I have two sons aged 21 and 29.  The older one has bipolar affective disorder and the younger one has schizophrenia coupled with OCD and a touch of Tourettes. 

The older son has it much easier - he is a normal regular likable guy most of the time but has to get through some very dramatic highs and lows on a regular basis.  The younger son has many more problems.  He is not able to communicate how he feels or what is happening to him, and John's film really helped me to understand what is going on inside his head.

- a mom from Ontario, Canada
Story topics: bipolar, college, self

Your movie really had a profound effect on me.  it was the most real film about mental illness i have ever seen.  i'm bipolar but with a lot of psychosis, and i just recently graduated from university as a film major.  my first psychotic break was at 19, after my freshman year.  i was lucky though, after one year, i was able to go back to school, and i'm 23 now.

you have inspired me to try writing a screenplay about my own experience.   all the films i had seen until yours have been so untrue to what it is really like to have mental illness. your movie was really special.

- a writer in Connecticut
Story topics: bipolar, self

You’ve touched my life. Dealing with bipolar in my own life, and in the lives of my clients, I have experienced many similar, if not verbatim, things that John has gone through.  The whole world needs to see this film.

- an employment counselor