I'm waiting for a patient who isn't showing up and logged on to this thread. As usual in these forums, I see such courage and encouragement...we need both.

What I had to get beyond in writing my own novel was thinking I had to be Danielle Steele or nothing! I'm sure I ended up somewhere in between. Putting my writing out there for others to critique was the hardest thing. That was 4 years ago and now my book is on Amazon (just yesterday!). I've decided that rejection slips are God's way of letting us know that even the idiots (the reviewers and naysayers) have their place in this world.

When I was getting my Ph.D. in Psychology, a supervisor wrote that "I was among the worst therapists he had every supervised...no, I was the worst!" Because of that, I changed majors and didn't get back into clinical work until a few years later. But now I've been in practice for 36 years and have helped 8 to 10 thousand people, some significantly. So what did he know!

Same thing with a recent critique of my novel done by some twenty something nitwit with an English major. I took what I felt was useful and discarded the rest.

And just a note on the medication issue. It's very complicated and so individualized. Some respond, some don't, some have terrible side effects, some don't, and, unfortunately, some have fatal consequences, either from the mental illness itself or the medications. But many are also helped. After being in a clinic setting where psychiatrists are available, I know I would never practice in a setting where they are not. We work together (therapist and psychiatrists) to try to come up with the best treatment plans. I am impressed about how well-informed you have all sought to be on the topic, whether it concerns yourself or others.