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In this episode we sit down and talk with Caterina Vicentini in my hotel room in Trieste.  Caterina is a math and physics teacher at the secondary school level in a town – Monfalcone --  that is about 30 minutes from the city centre of Trieste.

She is a service user and takes advantage of opportunities like this to share her story to help destigmatize mental illness and to offer hope that one can have a full life --  education, career and family –-  even while encountering the challenges of a mental illness.  Of course, she lives and works in a region that is known for exemplary care.

Her first crisis in her 20’s happened when she was a graduate student.  At that time, she had been awarded an Erasmus Fellowship which allowed her to study in Belgium.  Then she was offered an opportunity as a PhD student to be a teaching assistant.

She recalls for us her first experience of being taken to the hospital, forcibly injected by someone she did not trust, and then placed in a padded room with four point restraints.  The shock of all that is beyond frightening and you will hear about her Houdini-like liberation that took all night long.

In 1991 she and her husband returned to Trieste and she shares the stories over the subsequent decades of a few more incidents that would set her back, and how she emerged stronger each time.  

Note:  when she talks about going to the “centro di salute mentale” or staying there in one of their beds, this is not a hospital.  This is the community mental health center, which is an unlocked place with crisis beds for those who might need to stay for a day, a week or longer.