I take quite a few medications. My primary diagnosis is Manic Depression and I rely on them to, quite simply, keep me alive. My illness, when I do not take medications, or when I build up a tolerance to them, makes my mind perform quantum leaps. They have ranged from the sublime to the dastardly.

My vision can become so acute that I can see rainbows on each the hairs on my cat. I have also made Cricket come into my room in the middle of the night, to reassure me that the vision I was having of her dog being buried in my bedroom was not real.

For years I mutilated myself, slashing my wrists,legs and arms with razors, burning myself with cigarettes, stapling myself with heavy-duty staples, dragging my knuckles along bricks and hitting my head with heavy objects. Although I have had my arms sewn up a few times, it was not an act of suicide that had me cutting myself.

When I am suicidal, I check into the E.R. at Penn, and end up at a psyche ward for a couple of months. I do this for Cricket. She is my best friend and doesn't need me offing myself.

For years I was non-compliant with medications. This is often the case with psyche meds because A. it is hard to find the right one(s) and B. they take as long as two months to take effect. Many cause severe weight gain and other nasty side-effects. However, untreated mental-illness can have dire and deadly consequences. I am lucky enough to have the love and support of an incredible friend in Cricket, and two amazing doctors who through therapy and medication, help keep my illness in check.

The Church of Scientology, based on writings by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, is involved in the anti-psychiatry movement.... It has some very strange ideas about what exactly psychiatry has been up to. For example, Scientologists believe that psychiatry is responsible for World War One, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and the September 11 attacks. I'm no psychiatrist, but they sound a little paranoid to me.

If you look on You-Tube, there are a load of videos on Scientology. There are many that I am sure that they are unhappy about being available. There is the one about the terrible death of Lisa Macpherson. There are several that are actually leaked (by hackers, probably Anonymous/Chanology) videos of their own presentations, including one on their recent attack on psychiactric medicine. There are ones put out by Anonymous/Chanology, which vary in quality, which are an attempt to expose the the Church of Scientology in how it has allegedly used mind-control, homicide, isolation and criminal enterprise to form the massive organization that they are today.

For an in depth, detailed list of the people who have died or chosen to commit suicide to escape the Church of Scientology, please go to http://whyaretheydead.net It is truly overwhelming.

You may wonder why I give a flying fornication about this cult. Well, I happen to like being able to take psyche meds and not hallucinate portals. I also admire Brooke Shields for talking about post-partum depression as a real thing. I do tend to believe that a woman (who can bleed five days out of the month and still live, carry a baby to term and push it out from between her legs), can probably tell you something visceral and meaningful about how she feels during and after the time that she gave birth. As Ms. Shields was open enough to talk about, she was finally helped by anti-depressants.

On the other hand, I do not believe that Tom Cruise, an actor who has read some writings by a science fiction writer, is likely to be an authority on the subject of my, or anyone else's mental health. Call me crazy.