I’m Harold Jar­boe. I want to share with you my suc­cess­ful recov­ery sto­ry.
In 1983, I came to East­ern State Hos­pi­tal at the ear­ly age of 19 all shack­led up. I was expe­ri­enc­ing my first man­ic episode. It was a total night­mare. I’ve had a total of 9 hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and 8 man­ic episodes. I have bipo­lar disorder.

In 1986 I came to this hos­pi­tal for the 3rd time after a man­ic episode and couldn’t return to my home­town. I final­ly left the hos­pi­tal after 3 months and went off in the com­mu­ni­ty to an assist­ed liv­ing home. This was a very hard time in my life. I was lone­ly, mis­er­able, and depressed. I thought about sui­cide a lot. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tun­nel. It was so hard liv­ing in a much larg­er city so young with lit­tle sup­port and hav­ing a major men­tal illness.

My recov­ery has been a 27-year jour­ney and process to learn that I could recov­er from a brain dis­or­der and stay out of a psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal and be a pro­duc­tive mem­ber of soci­ety. I learned to always take my med­i­cine, take good care of myself, and make sure I always get enough sleep. I knew that I need­ed to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for myself. I always had dreams of an awe­some life and was nev­er ever going to give up. I knew I had to do the work and no one could do it for me. I learned to love myself and be good to me.

I stayed in and grad­u­at­ed from many pro­grams because I want­ed to get well. I knew that I would have a hap­py life if I
just hung in there and worked hard. I went to indi­vid­ual ther­a­py for years to help me over­come my anx­i­ety and emo­tion­al prob­lems. It was all worth it because I feel relaxed and com­fort­able around peo­ple. It feels so won­der­ful. I can express my per­son­al­i­ty and self and feel good about myself.

I’m so blessed and so proud of myself to have come a mil­lion miles. I’ve worked so hard in my recov­ery from a brain dis­or­der and becom­ing total­ly inde­pen­dent. I’ve had one hos­pi­tal­iza­tion in 19 years. I nev­er gave up no mat­ter how bad things got. I take a lick­ing and keep on tick­ing. I am hav­ing a won­der­ful, hap­py, pro­duc­tive life. I am blessed with so much ener­gy. I love life. I don’t drink or use drugs, but I love to par­ty. I’ve worked at Kroger for 20 years. My finan­cial sit­u­a­tion is sound. I have been mar­ried 11 years to my won­der­ful wife Angel. She is an angel. We just bought our first
home and love it.

I’m hap­py, opti­mistic, enthu­si­as­tic, ener­getic, and con­fi­dent about my future. I’m the hap­pi­est man in Fayette Coun­ty. Every day is a hol­i­day and every meal is a feast. And every night is a New Year’s Eve! We can have an awe­some life despite going through hard times. Life to me is beau­ti­ful and fan­tas­tic. I feel I’m hav­ing some heav­en right here on earth. Every day I pump myself up. I say I’m going to have a hap­py day. I’m going to have a great day. It’s helped me so much hav­ing a pos­i­tive atti­tude about life every day. I spread my hap­pi­ness and opti­mistic around. It is contagious.

My dreams and hopes are that we accept men­tal ill­ness as we accept can­cer, dia­betes, and oth­er ill­ness­es. I’m look­ing for­ward to a new East­ern State Hos­pi­tal.

Recov­ery is a life long jour­ney. We can recov­er, one day at a time. We can do awe­some things if we put our minds to it.

We should nev­er give up. We deserve hap­pi­ness. We are so special.

You all are won­der­ful, awe­some, ter­rif­ic and fan­tas­tic. I love you all very much. God Bless you

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