Seven years ago I experienced job discrimination based on my diagnosis.

Prior to that I was proud that my psychiatric disability was invisible.

No one could see it, no one had to know. After job discrimination changed my life I discovered holes in the Americans With Disabilities Act. The law did not protect my rights. I began speaking out for human rights and social justice.

When I tell my story I find only a few words open the door to a flood of stories about the pain caused by psychiatric disability and forced psychiatric treatment. Almost everyone has a story about a son, daughter, brother, sister, spouse or friend who lives with an invisible disorder.

A psychiatric disability is sometimes visible when we see an unkempt homeless person walking down the street, cigarette between fingers, head cast down and lost in his own murmuring. But that’s a stereotype. A...
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