What I learned from having spent so many years in and out of the local psych ward, the seventh floor of the hospital in the town I live in, is that anyone can end up there. A lot of my life, the more I think about it, has been moments of “I can’t believe this is happening. Did I make this happen to me? This seems like I went off the rails, into another dimension, and I wish I were back over there.” Being in the hospital in one of these places is nightmarish, frightening, and weird; people aren’t supposed to be in places like that. And you’re in a lockup, so you can’t leave. I became one of these people you see in movies in the background, those extras just pacing back and forth. It’s not a healthy place to be, and they don’t help you very much. And many times I was there against my will. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like something was happening to me that wasn’t right and didn’t feel normal. At the same time, so many people there, you hear their stories, and it seems like it could happen to anyone.

Al Columbia, interviewed