The person being interviewed chose to be anonymous. The method of doing this is sharing a google document so that their story is written how they wanted it to be written and nothing can be misinterpreted. This is their story written as if they were speaking:

When I was 21 years old, I decided to join the Navy. In the Navy, I thought I was going to build my life and become everything I had always wanted to become. I wanted to be someone who serves and protects.

During my time in Bootcamp, I realized I had a problem: I had problems following multiple sets of instructions. Nobody knew what was going on with me. As a result, my group went through rigorous medical tests again and again. During medical checks, I started hearing things in my mind. I thought I could hear the voices of the people I was with, except their mouths weren't moving. Yet the voices seemed external. Then I heard other voices along the way saying that the Navy thinks I am a terrorist.

When we were all together taking a test in a huge classroom, people were divided and I wasn't sure with which group I was with. Therefore, I must have gone in the wrong direction. At one point when we were all together and gathered in a room, the leader spoke loudly giving instructions. I was the only one not completely following them. Then they discovered that I must have gone the wrong way. The guy yelled louder and I couldn't make sense of what he was saying. Then I heard him say, "Go, or we're going to call the police." I start crying and I was having a mental breakdown.

Nurses and other medical specialists enter the building. They were measuring my blood pressure and my last thought was, "I'm letting my family down." I was taken to a hospital, yet my only thoughts were to go back to Bootcamp and prove my worth. Without family there, I was forced to fill out and sign a bunch of papers. I signed, but I had no idea what I was signing. I wanted to escape. I had no idea I had a mental illness.

I heard voices that sounded external, but nobody was making them.

My subconscious told me that now the Navy is experimenting on me using some sort of artificial telepathy devices. At first, I did not mind that my mind was being read; however, it got scarier when I started believing that they were using nanotechnology to torture my body from the inside.

I eventually went back home with my family, but I wasn't well until I started being honest. I thought it was my job to keep this technology a secret or from being in the wrong hands.

Medicine has worked on keeping the voices at bay. When I was honest about what was happening inside my body, the voices did not have control anymore. I could not feel the manipulation of my facial expressions, the manipulation of how I moved, or the manipulation of my bowel movements. The voices had always told me they were going to make me bleed from the inside. I believed because it really felt like was someone else was in control of my bowel movements.

Today, I am so traumatized that I still believe these technologies exist. However, I don't care about convincing the world. My delusions are as strong as someone's belief in God. It does not matter what I believe in, however, as long as my mental health is not affected.

I ignored the voices for so long that I don't hear them anymore.

Other psychological tests show that I am autistic, which explains my slow processing speed.

I have also learned to separate therapists from clinicians. Therapists are someone I can explain my delusion in greater detail without always assuming I need more medicine. Traumatic delusions can't be taken away with medications, but voices can be reduced. Talking about delusions with anxiety should call for medication, but talking about delusions calmly without imposing views is a call for therapy. Clinicians and therapists have to work together while letting the individual be an autonomous agent. I've learned to be honest and take my medications, but be smart about how I take them and learn the effects it has on me.

Today, I am on disability. I am on a program that allows me to go back to school and pursue a career.