Hi!, I go by my middle name Larry except when I am dealing with insurance.  I have passed the peer support specialist California exam after the peer support class.  One of the primary things they stress in the class is to impart to your patient to never give up hope by giving your own experience.  I would tell the client that the hospital is not the end of the world.  I was hospitalized 5 times, but recovered to have a successful engineering career.  My first experience was giving up alcohol.  My next recovery was from bipolar diagnosis in 2004.  My psychiatrist was able to get me the correct level of medicine to get me stable since then.  One of the strengths mentally is to maintain a healthy diet which affects you medically.  My wife, a dietician, has helped to keep me on a healthy medical balance.