Sit with Me While I'm Mad

Overview

“There are sensors in my hands and cameras in my walls. I’m sure of it.”But when Milly Thiringer mentioned this to her friends, the only thing they were sure of was that she needed to see a doctor.Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at age nineteen, Milly spent years running circles through the revolving door of the public mental healthcare system, being told to focus on symptom management and coping strategies as no significant improvement in her prognosis could be expected.She almost gave up. Almost. Along the way Milly's learned to be her own advocate while fighting through and redefining "recovery."

Author Biography

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, Milly’s life has consisted of many and varied attempts to locate reality in the midst of psychosis. She navigates her mental illness with as much honesty as she knows how and tries to remember that no label can define her personhood. Milly writes to find out who she is, because she’s pretty sure she’s been told wrong.Milly works as a paralegal and a freelance editor, trying to squeeze in time to write around contract work and raising kids. Her work has appeared in Awakened Voices, OC87 Recovery Diaries, and she is a contributor to The Mighty. Her essay, “The Third Plane,” will be published in a forthcoming anthology on parenting with mental illness called, How the Light Gets In, and she is making slow but sure progress on her first novel.Milly lives with her family on a rural prairie in North Idaho, where the tumbleweeds are as big as her minivan and ice cream cones are still a quarter. You can find her art and more of her writing at www.millythiringer.com, and follow her on Facebook or Twitter @millythiringer.