A Celebration of Life: 51 Reasons to keep living when all you want to do is die

This is a story about psychosis and faith. Our protagonist, Kimberley (29), wakes up in the emergency
room after suffering a mental break. She can't remember the events of the past 2 weeks but feels
she must remember them to understand why she went psychotic. Kimberley is diagnosed with
Bipolar Type 1 while in the hospital.
She does not believe the diagnosis and is consumed with this need to remember. She suffers 4 more
psychotic episodes during the year. For her, the episodes seem to somehow be linked to her
memory of that first episode. We follow her throughout the year as she tackles court cases, new
jobs, hospital stints, addiction, the death of a family member and of course, trying to remember.
All through her journey, Kimberley, learns lessons that she believes can help her out of a depression
she had suffered for many years. In some cases, the lessons are a direct result of her experience and
in other cases, she gleaned the knowledge through other sources.
Just before her third admission Kimberley remembers something amazing. She had had a spiritual
experience during her first psychotic episode. While going through the psychosis, Kimberley had had
a conversation with God. He had come to her just before she had one of the most difficult years of
her life. He had reminded her that He was here with her.
But was this the memory Kimberley had been so desperate to remember? As she goes through her
fourth and fifth admissions to hospital, she uncovers another memory. This time she remembers
what started this whole thing. She remembers exactly what she had been doing in the 2 weeks
leading up to her hospital admission that had most likely caused the psychosis.
Kimberley uncovers the last memory and is then motivated to ensure she does not experience a
psychosis again. She speaks to family members to help her with this, and decides to follow doctor
instructions pertaining to her medication and ceasing her use of cannabis.

Kimberley goes from 5 psychotic episodes in 1 year to zero in 2 years. She reveals that the one thing
that kept her going throughout her tribulations and gave her strength to overcome her disorder and
addiction is faith. She hopes that she can pass that faith on by sharing her experience.