Hello hsiw: I'm primarily a member on NT's sister website: PsychCentral. I've been involuntarily committed to the psych wards of two different hospitals in my area following 2 major suicide attempts. I'm glad you received so much help from friends & family. However based my own personal experience, as well as on the many posts I have read on PC, I would have to say there are an awful lot of us who receive no support from anyone... especially family & friends. But this includes the professionals in our lives as well.

I hear so often about all of the help that is supposedly available. And presumably there are some people who get it. But there are also a lot of us who get none, or for whom conditions are made even worse than they would have been if the professionals had just left well enough alone to begin with.

I personally have come to realize, over the years, that the only help I'm going to receive from any so-called mental health professional is help with lightening my wallet. It's certainly comforting to imagine there is all of this help & support out there. As I wrote above, I hear this all the time. But I would have to say I personally just don't see it. Over time I've come to understand that, to the extent anything is going to happen for me, I have to make it happen for myself... and so I do. Still in all... thanks for sharing your thoughts.