Chad

“To me, Hopewell is a place of hope and new beginnings. I believe the most remarkable thing about my personal Hopewell experience was that Chad never once expressed the interest to leave. He knew that Hopewell was helping him and that it was simply where he needed to be.” – Chad’s dad

Chad grew up in Solon, Ohio, graduating from high school in 2009. In his second year at Kenyon College, he started to feel that his brain was not functioning correctly. After graduating in 2013 with a degree in American Studies and English, Chad worked for The Chautauquan Daily newspaper. He was still having trouble keeping his thoughts from wandering and entered a local hospital. In 2014, he went to Ohio University for graduate school and soon after, he experienced psychosis and was hospitalized again.

In 2015, Chad received a diagnosis of Bipolar 1, a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. He was introduced to Hopewell by a family member, who thought this “safe, secure place with a remarkable staff of caring people” would be a stabilizing place for him. And this turned out to be true.

Chad fell into the daily routine at Hopewell, experiencing the openness of the residents and staff, embracing the comradery he encountered there. Work crew routines helped the flow of his days, though his allergy to animals kept him away from some farm activities. He said, “I felt like my head was broken and Hopewell was the cast. I was able to heal.”

Two years after leaving Hopewell, Chad graduated with his Masters in Journalism from Ohio University, completing his 108 page thesis on media coverage of the 2014 conflict in the Gaza Strip. He worked for a political consulting agency and now is employed at a grocery store near his Cleveland Heights apartment.

For Chad, the key to everything is to derive pleasure from the present moment. At Hopewell, he learned ways to keep his life together: sleep, medicine compliancy, structured daily schedules, and therapy. Chad stated, “Without Hopewell, I would be nowhere.”