Sarah's Story
Sarah Merritt Ryan, MS, CPSS, is a writer, speaker, and Certified Peer Support Specialist who helps people understand what emotional recovery from psychosis truly means. Through her writing and talks, she explains what it’s like to rebuild your life after psychosis - with honesty, humor, and hope. Her work bridges lived experience with professional insight, creating a compassionate space for patients, families, and professionals to connect and learn.
The Turning Point: How It Began
Sarah’s symptoms of a psychotic disorder began to show when she was overprescribed Adderall, which led to a substance-induced psychosis. During college, she was hospitalized and placed on antipsychotic medication indefinitely.
After returning to finish her degree, she continued to face side effects, career setbacks, and the feeling that something about her life was “off.”
Years later, while pursuing her master’s degree, she experienced her first full psychotic break — then another after leaving her PhD program.
Recovery was slow and difficult. She spent time in hospitals and even a homeless shelter, learning through painful experience how fragile and resilient the human mind can be.
That period of her life changed everything. It also gave her an unshakable sense of empathy for others who face similar challenges.
Choosing Hope: Step by Step Healing
After her second hospitalization, Sarah made the decision to stay on her medication for life, a choice that became the foundation for her recovery.
What followed were years of small, deliberate steps: showing up for herself, rebuilding confidence, and learning how to love life again.
She says, “I ultimately decided to try and fail rather than quit.” That mindset helped her move from anger and shame toward peace and acceptance. She discovered that emotional recovery is as important as cognitive recovery. It’s not just about thinking clearly, but about feeling like yourself again.
Over time, love, patience, and positivity replaced fear and self-doubt.
Sarah built a life filled with purpose, joy, and connection. She is now a wife, a mother, a writer, and a voice for others who feel unseen.
The Turning Point: How It Began
Sarah’s symptoms of a psychotic disorder began to show when she was overprescribed Adderall, which led to a substance-induced psychosis. During college, she was hospitalized and placed on antipsychotic medication indefinitely.
After returning to finish her degree, she continued to face side effects, career setbacks, and the feeling that something about her life was “off.”
Years later, while pursuing her master’s degree, she experienced her first full psychotic break — then another after leaving her PhD program.
Recovery was slow and difficult. She spent time in hospitals and even a homeless shelter, learning through painful experience how fragile and resilient the human mind can be.
That period of her life changed everything. It also gave her an unshakable sense of empathy for others who face similar challenges.
Choosing Hope: Step by Step Healing
After her second hospitalization, Sarah made the decision to stay on her medication for life, a choice that became the foundation for her recovery.
What followed were years of small, deliberate steps: showing up for herself, rebuilding confidence, and learning how to love life again.
She says, “I ultimately decided to try and fail rather than quit.” That mindset helped her move from anger and shame toward peace and acceptance. She discovered that emotional recovery is as important as cognitive recovery. It’s not just about thinking clearly, but about feeling like yourself again.
Over time, love, patience, and positivity replaced fear and self-doubt.
Sarah built a life filled with purpose, joy, and connection. She is now a wife, a mother, a writer, and a voice for others who feel unseen.
Turning Pain Into Purpose: Writing & Speaking To Help Others
What began as private reflection turned into published essays, articles, blog posts, and speaking engagements that now reach people across the world. Sarah writes everything she wishes she could have read during her own early recovery - honest reflections mixed with practical wisdom.
Her work has been featured by Psychology Today, Teva’s Life Effects, NAMI, and the UNC School of Medicine. She speaks regularly at conferences and community events, helping professionals better understand the patient perspective and inspiring people in recovery to see what is possible.
She brings humor, empathy, and clarity to every conversation about psychosis, showing that living well after illness is not only possible but worth working toward.
Credentials, Experience & Recognition
Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Communication from North Carolina State University. She is a Certified Peer Support Specialist through the UNC School of Social Work.
She has been published twice in Writer’s Digest, is a contributor to Teva’s Life Effects, and has a Personal Perspectives blog through Psychology Today. Her articles are republished on the UNC School of Medicine website and used as training material for psychiatry residents in the UNC Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (UNC STEP).
In 2024, Sarah was honored as a “Hometown Hero” by the North Carolina Courage Professional Women’s Soccer Team, Lenovo, and NAMI Wake County for her advocacy and contributions to mental health awareness in the Raleigh-Durham community. She is the designated advocate for parents with mental illness for Wake County Public Schools.
What Drives Her
Sarah believes the only way to make peace with her past is to use it to help others. She fights to reduce stigma, build community, and bring emotional recovery into the conversation about psychosis.
Her goal is to show that there is life after psychosis - a full, meaningful, joyful life. She helps others see that emotional recovery means learning to trust yourself again, believe in yourself again, and want to be yourself again.
Outside of work, Sarah lives in Apex, North Carolina, with her husband, Bill, their son, and two rescue pitbulls, Rose and Bastian. A feral cat named Carlos has claimed their porch as his home. She loves tennis, art, and the North Carolina mountains, and she never turns down french fries or a Diet Coke.
“The ability to choose love for yourself and others is the one thing that cannot be taken from you. Holding onto that love carried me through the hardest years of my life.”
— Sarah Merritt Ryan
Credentials, Experience & Recognition
Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Communication from North Carolina State University. She is a Certified Peer Support Specialist through the UNC School of Social Work.
She has been published twice in Writer’s Digest, is a contributor to Teva’s Life Effects, and has a Personal Perspectives blog through Psychology Today. Her articles are republished on the UNC School of Medicine website and used as training material for psychiatry residents in the UNC Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (UNC STEP).
In 2024, Sarah was honored as a “Hometown Hero” by the North Carolina Courage Professional Women’s Soccer Team, Lenovo, and NAMI Wake County for her advocacy and contributions to mental health awareness in the Raleigh-Durham community. She is the designated advocate for parents with mental illness for Wake County Public Schools.
What Drives Her
Sarah believes the only way to make peace with her past is to use it to help others. She fights to reduce stigma, build community, and bring emotional recovery into the conversation about psychosis.
Her goal is to show that there is life after psychosis - a full, meaningful, joyful life. She helps others see that emotional recovery means learning to trust yourself again, believe in yourself again, and want to be yourself again.
Outside of work, Sarah lives in Apex, North Carolina, with her husband, Bill, their son, and two rescue pitbulls, Rose and Bastian. A feral cat named Carlos has claimed their porch as his home. She loves tennis, art, and the North Carolina mountains, and she never turns down french fries or a Diet Coke.
“The ability to choose love for yourself and others is the one thing that cannot be taken from you. Holding onto that love carried me through the hardest years of my life.”
— Sarah Merritt Ryan
Explore More
Sarah continues to write, speak, and advocate for a world where recovery stories are celebrated and stigma ends.