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What Patients Say

Menninger patients have stories about their illnesses and reactions to treatment and recovery. Here then is an assortment of comments, anecdotes and journal entries from Menninger patients in their own words. Names have been withheld to guard patients' privacy.

• "I would like to emphasize how much I appreciate what all of you did to help me while I was there. I may not have always felt understood, but I always felt accepted in spite myself. More importantly, you did not give up on me. I finally not only know what to do to help myself, but am doing it. I have never been as committed to doing what I need to do in order to stay healthy. My intentions were usually good in the past but I never felt as if my life was worth all of the effort it took. You helped to change that. I don’t think about suicide anymore and I actually believe that my life is worth living. I am now back working full time and have started focusing on my relationships with friends, family, and coworkers."

• "Together with my team, I am leaving here with solutions and plans we developed to aid me in dealing with future problems as they arise. I am leaving (Menninger) with a higher self-esteem and more comfort with myself and in dealing with others than I have ever experienced in my life."

• "I have never been challenged in such a way in my life...The reward for the discoveries I have made in my work here to become mentally healthy can be equated to that of someone learning to walk again after a bad accident."

• "In my many inpatient hospitalizations, I have never had a treatment team that genuinely cared about me and my problems like here at Menninger. I was always treated with respect, not like a number."

• "You have wonderful doctors and a wonderful team (on the Hope Program) the best I've found in the country—all under one roof."

• "The support and information provided here have made it possible for me to understand my depression and how to combat it."

• "When I start feeling depressed, I have come to recognize that it’s up to me to turn it around by using the skills I’ve learned while on the Professionals in Crisis unit to combat negative thinking."

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