Barber: Creativity, spirituality aid recovery

from Nonpareil Online:

He was a high-achieving high school student who became a pre-med student at Harvard University.

Suddenly, he couldn't handle it anymore and dropped out.

Charles
Barber, who was later diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder,
felt overwhelmed by "an endless stream of worries" and fears that he
had committed terrible, violent acts that he hadn't committed.

Barber,
keynote speaker at the 14th annual Spirituality and Mental Health
Conference held Thursday at New Horizon Presbyterian Church, worked
with mentally ill people in New York City homeless shelters for 10
years. Now a senior administrator in social services and lecturer in
psychiatry at Yale University, he has since written about his
experiences in those shelters. The title essay in his first book,
"Songs from the Black Chair," won a 2006 Pushcart Prize.