Why the 21st Century Cure Act is at the Heart of Everything

I have heard the words cure and mental health only one time before, in the Presidents New Freedom Commission Report.  I can hear this report in my head, "envision a future when everyone with a mental illness will recover, a future when mental illness can be prevented or cured...."  Are we at that day with this legislation, I don't know really.   I do know with some maverick legislative moves NAMI advocates version of a bill usurped a painfully crafted compromise bill that involved a broader spectrum of advocates.  There is a spectrum of mental health advocates, this is very important to note.  We don't all agree easily.  Where we seem to disagree is at the heart of this word "choice".
Key components of the Cure Act's mental health components are centered around the civil right to choose treatment, or choose whether or not I want my mom to know where I am.  I have had my civil rights taken many times and during these times I always take away my mothers visitation rights.  My mother makes me very angry when I am ill, which just leaves me more ill.  
The first time my civil right were taken, I was obsessed on the loss of freedom for months as I languished in 4 hospitals in 2003.  I hated the notion of taking medication.  There was a man that told me, "You will take medication for the rest of your life."  Well, I was determined he was wrong and he was.  I came in contact with the consumer movement.  There are leaders within the movement that claim their recovery does not include medication.  They claim the oppression of psychiatry is wrong, that it is wrong to force treatment.  Well, when there are beautiful alternatives like peer support that made sense to me.  I came off my medication with a psychiatrists assistance so I could give birth to my son.  I went four years med-free.  I loved my life, but the truth was I was a little fearful of others during these years.  See I am a victim of many crimes, and when I am not on medication fear is really an exaggerated experience.  This experience of fear snowballed and exploded at a time where I almost lost everything.  I was hospitalized against my will again in 2011.  I was sure my coworkers had put nuclear waste in my water supply.  I drove my whole family to Georgia, thinking the nuclear waste was following me in the trucks passing.  I took my son to Children's to treat him for radiation.  They were so kind to assure me that he wouldn't have his fine motor coordination in tact with the stickers they gave him, if he had radiation damage.  They quickly moved me to a hospital and I became sure my entire family was being crucified on the roof of the hospital.  I was sure this was being broadcast on the TV.   The whole experience was traumatic and horrible, but the truth is if I had driven my car to a peer respite I helped design, they would have turned me away as being too serious.  
What I am trying to say is in that moment, I chose medicine.  I would do anything in the world to make that experience go away.  The medicine has kept it away and I am glad I was hospitalized that day.
So, I was talking about cures, the Cure Act is promising as its titled.  The problem is the mental health reform legislation that is being folded in is a early version.  The compromised version that included the voice of all advocacy groups was trashed.  I am not saying one is better than the other, but I am saying that all voices belong.  If it weren't for the consumer movement, I wouldn't have had support in choosing to have a son.  My life would be so different without his laughter.  If the hospital had not forced my treatment the second time, my son might not have the mother that he does.  I think that until our world is very different, we need both to exist.  Real choice can not exist, without all the voices at the table.