[4] Saks began experiencing symptoms of mental illness at eight years old, but she had her first full-blown episode when studying as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.
Another breakdown happened while Saks was a student at Yale Law School, after which she "ended up forcibly restrained and forced to take anti-psychotic medication".
[6] Saks lives with schizophrenia and has written about her experience with the illness in her autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness published by Hyperion Books in 2007.
[8] Saks says "there's a tremendous need to implode the myths of mental illness, to put a face on it, to show people that a diagnosis does not have to lead to a painful and oblique life.
"[9] In recent years, researchers have begun talking about mental health care in the same way addiction specialists speak of recovery—the lifelong journey of self-treatment and discipline that guides substance abuse programs.
[15] On September 14, 2020, William James College in Newton, Mass., awarded Saks an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for her life-long service to people with serious mental illness.