Beyond My Diagnosis: A Conversation

Pier 360 Staff

Oct 6

2 min read

I remember where I was back in 2012 when I first walked through the front door of the West Center (WC). Back then, Pier 360 was called Consumer Voices Are Born (CVAB). I was starting to drift back into my psychosis after my attempt to become part of a meditation community in Portland.

My mind told me that the other members saw me as a dangerous, mentally ill monster and were actively trying to get a restraining order against me. Later, I found out that none of it had ever happened. I started to panic because I thought "they" were out to get me, and I went looking for a safe place and a new community.

That was what I was hoping for when I walked through that front door. During my orientation with a peer, I said I'd had a bad experience with a community in Portland and was looking for a new one. She answered, "We will be your new community." I felt welcome. I had found a place I could call home.

I remember leaving Los Angeles back in October 2009. My last therapist there told

me at our first session, "I can tell you have been in the system for a long time,

because you introduced yourself by your diagnosis." It would be many years

before I understood that there was more to me than my diagnosis.

When I left Los Angeles, I couldn't even get a volunteer job. I had been on SSI and Medicaid for decades and had been hospitalized, both involuntarily and voluntarily, more than 12 times. I was getting older, and I did not know if I would ever hold my first job. I still had some hope, but it was mixed with feelings of hopelessness and despair.

It is now 2026, and I am a full-time employee of Pier 360. I am no longer on SSI or

Medicaid. I believe we can all recover and become well, whatever that looks like

for each of us. For me, it looks like freedom from payees controlling my life, and

no longer feeling shame because I did not pay income tax.

I can look others in the eye and know I am not less than because I am disabled. I now understand what it means to be more than my diagnosis, and that there is more to life than treatment.

But my recovery and wellness journey is not over; it has only begun.