I was given the opportunity to attend a Christian Science Sunday School when I was about seven years of age. At fourteen, I was to experience a great change in my life. I was attending a very difficult school where the young teens were rather out of control. It seemed I had to struggle each day just to be there. There were two young people in particular who seemed to be hard to get along with. They called me names and poked fun at everything I did. This nightmare plagued me even at home; there was no escape. Eating also became difficult.
Finally one evening I broke down and told my parents. My dad was eager for me to get Christian Science treatment, but the communication between my dad and me was not very close. I did call a Christian Science practitioner, however, and afterward I did feel better. But the school nightmare did not seem to change. Finally I experienced a total breakdown, mental and physical. I ended up in a psychiatric ward at a nearby hospital.
The psychiatrist who attended me was a kind gentleman and seemed very supportive. But after several months of efforts at rehabilitation, he concluded that I needed to be shocked back into reality. The solution, he thought, was to send me to a mental hospital a few miles from the city I lived in. There I was given heavy doses of medication because I was so upset. Also the people in charge put me into a unit with somewhat dangerous people, though I was only fourteen at the time.
