Submitting a Personal Story

Welcome! We appreciate your interest in submitting a personal story to Mad in America.

A ‘personal story’ is defined as your story of being in relationship to psychiatry and/or the mental health system, whatever that means to you. It might involve your opinions and analysis of what happened to you, as well. It can be about a specific event, or about your overall journey, provided it fits the length requirements (1500 to 3000 words) and has a narrative arc. The piece should be about your personal experiences, not psychiatry or the mental health system in general. Submissions should fall under the theme of rethinking psychiatry and the mental health system, and should be original works not previously published elsewhere.

For examples of the types of stories we publish, view our personal stories archive here.

Not all personal stories are accepted for publication at Mad in America. Reasons for this might include the quality of writing, the length, or that the story doesn’t ask us, in some way, to rethink psychiatry. We are looking for stories that are clearly told, insightful, and in one way or another, speak to this theme of the societal need to rethink how mental health care is practiced.

We now use a submissions manager called Submittable for personal story submissions. Click here to go to our submissions page and login to your Submittable account if you already have one — if not, you’ll be prompted to create an account, and can then upload your story.