My sister, Jessica, has manic depressive disease. She was diagnosed while she was in college, after her roommates became worried about her strange actions, as they saw her wandering around in her nightgown in the middle of the night. Eventually she was put in the hospital, where she was given medication to keep her mind under control. When she came back home to live with my family and me, she seemed sane and most importantly, safe. Taking her medication brought some normalcy into her life. Then, secretly, she stopped taking them.

Jessica says it was the side effects that made her give up her medication, but whatever it was, it began one of the most horrifying few months of the lives of both my sister and everyone she was close to. Off her medication, her health and sanity quickly deteriorated. Jessica began to have trouble talking to and relating to people. She stayed up late nights having conversations with herself, and everyone in her family feared for her safety.