He talked over me, had no interest in learning, and ultimately muttered that although he is sticking to his guns about not agreeing with my diagnosis (but having no other explanation for my ongoing symptoms and subsequent resolution of them), he "can't argue" with my progress.

He listened for 10 minutes and calmly said, "You have Lyme. Lyme does all kinds of weird things, but you'll get better. Amazing that I am only the 12th doctor you've been to. Most find me somewhere between 20 and 100."

I knew I couldn't continue on following the lead of my doctors because they or whatever mystery condition I had was killing me. Still, I didn't take charge of my own health until the head and neck surgeon told me he suspected I had lymphoma. I knew then I wasn't ready to die, certainly not at 39.

"Crazy Eyes," the nickname for character Suzanne Warren on Orange Is the New Black for which actress Uzo Aduba won her second Emmy last month, is probably the greatest lesson on the reality of mental illness in women behind bars.

Patient empowerment is a crucial part of the solution.