Publications & Presentations

Sharing insight, hope, and lived experience to redefine recovery.

Sarah Merritt Ryan’s published work and presentations are used by universities, healthcare professionals, and advocacy organizations to deepen understanding of emotional recovery from psychosis. From webinars and speaking series with NAMI NC to international publications with Teva Life Effects, Sarah brings an articulate, lived-experience voice to conversations about healing, resilience, and hope.

Explore selected articles, short stories, and presentations that highlight the emotional side of recovery - where science meets humanity, and lived experience brings insight to life.

Videos

Sarah Merritt Ryan interview: Emotional recovery, openness and honesty
"I define emotional recovery as trusting and believing in yourself again and wanting to be you. Focusing on this gives you the confidence, motivation and patience to persist and do the hard work it takes to recover. We need to create more dialogue about how we're feeling and how our mental health is."

What if we answered honestly when someone asked how we were doing?

Sarah Merritt Ryan - writer, speaker, and advocate living in full remission from schizophrenia - knows what it costs to pretend you're fine when you aren't. She also knows what it feels like to stop pretending.

Emotional recovery is about reclaiming your voice, being honest about how you actually are, and refusing to suffer in silent shame. That takes courage. And it takes a culture that makes it safe to tell the truth - in clinics, in workplaces, in communities.

Sarah Merritt Ryan interview: Path to stability
"I thought my life was not redeemable. I didn't think my life was fixable. I thought everything was hopeless. But through patience and time, I healed."

Sarah Merritt Ryan was 33 when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia - after three psychotic breaks in two years. She came home from the hospital with disability papers and a sense that the life she'd imagined was no longer available to her.

Today, she is a wife, a mother, a writer and an advocate whose work shapes how psychiatry residents are trained.

Her path to stability wasn't linear – it took time, hard lessons, and learning to make heart-led choices.
Her story is a reminder of what's possible when we don't give up on people – and when people don't give up on themselves.

Social and Cultural Myths Surrounding the Use of Antipsychotic Medicines

Thursdays With NAMI on Anosognosia

NAMI at Noon: Early Recovery from Psychosis

Welcoming Wellness: Empowering Mental Health, Battling Stigma, Staying Positive and Well

Podcast Appearances

Sarah joined The Empowering Minds Mental Health™ Podcast to her experience with psychosis and recovery. Sarah discussed her journey from being overprescribed Adderall in college to experiencing multiple psychotic breaks over a two-year period, highlighting the importance of emotional recovery alongside cognitive recovery. She emphasized how emotional recovery involves trusting and believing in oneself, navigating stigma around antipsychotic medication, and building a support system. Sarah recommended NAMI support groups, therapy, and maintaining hope as key components for early recovery, while also sharing her ongoing work as a speaker and writer focused on mental health education and stigma reduction. 

Watch below, or Listen Here. 

Articles

Schizophrenia Bulletin Open

Writer's Digest

Psychology Today

Life Effects Blog with Teva Pharmaceuticals

National Alliance for Mental Illness Blog at Nami.org

5 West

NAMI Wake County in North Carolina

Life After Psychosis Monthly Call with NAMI NC

Come join us for our monthly call, Life After Psychosis: A Series on Topics Related to Recovery from Psychosis. I do a presentation based on a blog topic of choice from Psychology Today, hosted by Shereka Littlejohn Dunston, MSW, MS, Director of Programs & Initiatives from NAMI NC. We have the virtual call the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Sign up online here:

 Sign Up Here

Short Stories on Mental Illness

  • “The Warmth Between Us” (2025). Short story in The TAF Omnibus Vol. IV. Triangle Association of Freelancers. Edited by Arlene Bice.

Published Poetry on Emotionally Surviving Trauma

  • “My Soul to Keep: Faith in the Midst of Suffering Leads to Deliverance and Praise,” Forthcoming in 2027 with Prolific Pulse Press.
  • “Buried” and “Responsibility.” The TAF Omnibus III: Triangle Association of Freelancers (Stories & Poems). Edited by Arlene S. Bice. 2024.
  • “Daughter,” “Live Twice,” and “Oak,” Fine Lines Literary Journal. Spring 2024 Edition.
  • “My Head Space.” A Safe and Brave Space Poetry Anthology, by The Garden of Neuro Institute. Garden of Neuro Publishing. June 9, 2024.
  • “Just Dance.” in Cadence: Life’s Poetic Rhythms, Anthology by Prolific Pulse Press, LLC. June 21, 2024.
  • “Because I Am Me,” “Mending Truth,” and “Hiding or Telling.” The TAF Omnibus II: Triangle Association of Freelancers (Stories & Poems). Edited by Arlene S. Bice. 2023.
  • “Still and Brave.” iDear Heart Anthology. Edited by Lisa Tomey. Prolific Pulse Press, LLC, 2023. Pp. 41-43.
  • “Truth,” “Alive,” and “Fallen Blue.” The TAF Omnibus: Triangle Association of Freelancers (Stories & Poems). Edited by Arlene S. Bice. Pp. 137-139. 2022.
  • “Heart.” Hope Whispers: An Anthology of Inspirational Poems and Short Stories, Edited by Lynn C. Johnston. Whispering Angel Books, 2009. P.12.

Presentation Types

  • Case study, Early recovery from psychosis, Why People Don’t Get Treated for Mental Illness, Why Taking Antipsychotics is Hard due to cultural myths, and I can work with people to customize any other type of presentation in mind.