VIDEO. “I entered a psychiatric hospital at 17. I could not be diagnosed until I was 27”

“I entered a psychiatric hospital at 17. At the time, I didn’t realize it was worth saving my life” explains Laetitia, who wrote the comic “How to survive in a mental hospital (while smoking tons of cigarettes)”. His parents take him to the emergency room. She was then transferred to the psychiatric emergency room of Saint-Anne, where she remained for a few days. “At some point, I was finally allowed to have music and my friends brought me a CD with all the bands of the time. Music kept me going”.

She is then directed to the center for adolescents. His days are punctuated by meals and “smoke cigarettes”. Affected by severe depression, the young woman has trouble concentrating, like reading a book for example. It takes ten years for her to finally be diagnosed: she has borderline personality disorder. “It is very important to be diagnosed. Life can be beautiful, but we need to be helped by giving us the right tools”says Laetitia.