This foundation has been built by the Amick-Alexis family’s inspiring journey of discovery, understanding and hope.

Beyond The Storm: My Family’s Long Road to Recovery

In the winter of 2011 I was stumbling through a new and exciting chapter of my life. It was my freshman year at Cornell University and I was preparing for the only three things that seemed to matter on planet earth; final exams, the Indoor Track & Field Ivy League Championship, and flu season. I was overly prepared for the first two and already falling victim to the latter... The snow season in upstate New York broke records, sure, but it also broke most of the freshmen from California like myself who thought Ugg boots would suffice as snow shoes.

I was trudging through a blizzard after track practice one night when I got the call. My older brother was severely ill. But it wasn’t an illness that anyone was able to communicate clearly - the only thing that seemed clear was that his behavior was concerning.

My brother, also a student athlete, was on the track team across the country at UC Irvine. He was popular, talented, funny, and smart (like choosing to go to school somewhere warm). I could practically hear my parents’ sigh of relief when we both went off to college on athletic scholarships - they did everything right to set us up for success and could now enjoy the peaceful empty nest that they truly deserved.

But at 18, I was about to learn the hard lesson that life always has other plans for you.

On that phone called I learned that my brother witnessed a death on campus as he was walking home from a frat party. We now know the trauma of that event forever altered his brain chemistry. Addiction began to run his life; and as anyone with this experience knows, it ran our lives too. We thought that sobriety would help him get back on track but something wasn’t adding up - there were no drugs in his system but his behavior was still erratic, delusional, heightened, disorganized, grandiose, and altogether unrecognizable.

He was finally properly diagnosed with severe Bipolar I disorder with a suspicion of Schizoaffective disorder as well. Bipolar I differs from the other Bipolar diagnoses (yes, this is where we learned there’s a bunch) in that people with Bipolar I experience extreme mania with little to no depression. We learned what a manic episode does to his brain, the way the brain swells so much that it pushes the eyeballs forward in their sockets. That a manic brain is fighting itself and its best interests. That it can take a year to recover from a severe manic episode, like it’s a heart attack for the brain.

Luckily, my brother is a fighter. He’s been in recovery and working a program for almost 15 years now, he’s a certified peer specialist in the mental health space trying to make it a better place for people like him. My family are fighters too; my parents have been there every step of the way protecting my brother’s life when he gets sick, knocking down doors of psychiatric hospitals at 2am to let him stabilize there over night, fighting insurance companies to cover primary mental health when they deny him, advocating for him when yet another rehabilitation center that claims to be dual diagnosis (meaning they treat both substance use disorder and

mental illness) kick him out after 24 hours because he’s “too manic” for them to handle, all the while keeping the colossal out-of-pocket fee they charged at the door...

As I give you this small window into our family’s experience, I know without a doubt that whoever is reading this might know this story all to well. Which begs the question; why is the mental healthcare system so broken? If one in five people will receive a mental health diagnosis in their lifetime, why is access to affordable mental healthcare nearly impossible to find? Why is our system stretched so thin that our psychiatric hospitals are underfunded and understaffed, our privatized centers are sometimes over $100,000 for maybe 30 days of treatment, and our mental health crisis continues to rise at an alarming rate? Why do we have fight the system to get healthy?

After almost 15 years I wish my family and I had more answers than questions. But the silver lining is that our anger turned into action and brought us together like never before. Now, my mom and I both work in Hollywood and through our work, we’re constantly inundated with messages from strangers who are reaching out for help. Many of whom are teenagers like I was, braving a new exciting chapter in an unfamiliar land, learning life has other plans in store for them.

To them, and to you, I’d like to say this; take it easy on yourself. Despite how it feels when you’re in the middle of the storm, it’s going to be okay and it’s going to take time. Tell the people around you what you’re going through even if you think it makes you look weak, or like a bad parent, or a bad sister, or a bad friend. It doesn’t. Reach out for help and for resources, and pay it forward once you’ve weathered this storm. And, don’t take no for an answer. Your loved one’s life depends on it. Your resiliency will shape the future of mental healthcare, your compassion will shape the future of stigma against mental illness, and your willingness to adapt to life’s unforeseen peaks and valleys will create new relationships that will last a lifetime.

I’m excited to see what our next chapter brings.

— Mina Tobias