This issue was written by people with mental illnesses from hospitals in London, Berlin, Stockholm and a day centre care program called WilPower in Northfield, Illinois, USA

We met the contributors through friends, associates and, in the case of the Yanks, after being inspired by a gutting, funny and brilliant documentary called Unbreakable Minds. Abby and Irene, who made it, turned us on to WilPower and got us in the door (if you want to buy the movie, or know more about it, you can email them yourself, dliproductions@sympatico.ca). And Sue Shimon, the executive director of WilPower, was kind enough to know that we didn’t want to do a magazine that said, “Ha ha, look at the fucking loony tunes. Ha ha ha, they think the TV said that nobody likes them” or whatever. So thanks to all of you guys.

But mostly thanks to all the excellent mentally ill people who generously let us meet them and told us what they were thinking about.

Rob Logan, who is kind of the star of the show, tells us about his early days in radio and TV, and where he stands now, sometimes talking to the TV. He also tells us about this little-known band that might end up being the next big thing. Rob has major depression and bipolar disorder.

Brian Spencer, an aspiring young poet and writer who plays about 20 hours of Final Fantasy 10 per day and has severe bipolar disorder, tells us what it's like to swallow a bunch of pills that make your brain different.

Amy Kogen is a bipolar woman and her kid Tim is autistic. She wrote out her tips for being a good mom for us.

Larry Rotheiser went out with a woman with a serious crack addiction and learned some stuff about love that he wants to pass on to all of our readers.

Jeff Saul has such severe manic depression that he'll go into an episode in Chicago and come out of the haze days later in Florida.

Michelle Smith is a painter from Hackney who claims to have visits from demons. She’s also endured abuse at the hands of fellow patients while staying in hospital. Michelle also likes to dance so we got her to tell us what she thought of one of the bands in our music section.