Hell on earth: textual reflections on the experience of mental illness.

BACKGROUND Some people who by themselves or by others are understood as having mental health problems have written autobiographies about their experiences. AIMS The aim of this study is to explore how people write about their experiences of being mentally ill. METHOD Twelve Scandinavian autobiographies were studied using content analysis based on phenomenology and hermeneutics. RESULTS Three themes were identified: feeling like a stranger in life and places, the transformation of life experiences into questions of disease and feeling ashamed. CONCLUSIONS People's experiences of being mentally ill might be understood as the result of medical constructions unsuitable for the persons themselves. We could instead say that mental problems are not diseases, but severe and painful phenomena in people's lives.