Watch Mental Health Leader Larry Fricks on The Today Show
 (CHICAGO — Jan. 4, 2008) — On Wednesday, January 9, 2008, during the 8:00 a.m. EST hour (between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. EST), nationally recognized consumer leader Larry Fricks, vice president of peer services for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), will be featured on NBC’s The Today Show. Fricks will discuss his personal story as highlighted in Strong at the Broken Places, the newly-released book by Richard M. Cohen, the three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Blindsided. Cohen has lived with multiple sclerosis for over 25 years and spent three years chronicling the lives of Fricks and four others who also live with chronic illnesses. His new book shares their remarkable and inspirational stories. As Cohen himself says, “This book profiles five strong people on the front lines of illness. Each fights a different war….they are extraordinary for their resolve….They, and their families, speak from the heart and tell their stories with pride.”
“Hope is to the soul what oxygen is to the body,” Fricks tells Cohen in the book. “Hope to me is the key to recovery. We can encourage hope with practices every day. I start each day reading something hopeful. I really do.” Fricks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1984. Originally in denial of his illness, he spent much of the mid 1980s in and out of mental hospitals, using alcohol to control his manic periods. Today, Fricks is internationally known for designing certified peer specialist programs across the United States during his nearly 13 years as director of Georgia’s Office of Consumer Relations and Recovery. In his role as DBSA’s peer services VP, his primary responsibilities are to develop and implement new recovery-oriented services and peer-led programs which focus on issues such as whole health.
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