I suffered my first severe bipolar episode in 1986 when I was 29 years old. I lived in Mexico City at the time, and unfortunately, the quality of the doctors I saw and the medicine I received was very poor. It was a very painful experience, but after two years of fighting almost alone, I recovered my health. At that time, I thought that what happened was due to the stress of running my own business.

I opened two business franchises in the United States, and another in Mexico. I worked very hard. I thought I was pretty close to giving my family the economical security they needed. Then suddenly, at the end of 1999, I had another episode.

This episode was terrible. I fought the illness. I stayed up for five days straight and took a number of pills to try to get to sleep. I could not accept that I needed help. I asked my boss for seven days off work to rest and he said no. Worried about losing my job, and not knowing any American doctors, I returned to Mexico City and the first doctor I had seen in 1986.

Seven days later, my boss fired me. So, I was sick, looking without luck for a good doctor in Mexico City, and my wife and kids were in Houston. I was desperate, so I went back to Houston to wait until my son finished second grade.

In the meantime, through a friend, I found a job in Mexico City. I was trying to get better but I wasn’t taking the right medications. They made me sleep almost all day long. Just one month before my family and I came back to Mexico City, to re-start a new life and job, my wife found a good doctor in Houston and I started taking new medications. The change was just great. I felt "normal" again very quickly.

That happened three years ago. Now I am in a partnership with a friend in a new business. On Fridays I take the day off and visit people who are ill or need help, trying to give them comfort and love. Now I am visiting a clinic that takes care of people with mental illness, because a friend of mine has a son with bipolar disorder. Now I have three friends who I visit.