Photo taken in Massachusetts by Danielle, a contributor with bipolar disorder. She has been undergoing various treatments for bipolar, depression, and BPD traits.

About this photo: “I was in a treatment program at an old psychiatric hospital recently. One night I went for a walk with someone in my group. We stumbled upon a huge abandoned building. I love old abandoned buildings, and one at a mental hospital? What could be more interesting than that?

I decided to take a photo with my phone, knowing I would probably only get blackness. I pressed the shutter button, and suddenly I jumped back almost knocking over my friend. There was nothing in front of us besides steps and the building but when I pressed the button, a weird smoky sort of thing happened that appeared quickly as I snapped the pic and then disappeared. It looked smoky but there was definitely no smoke, it was cold but it was way too far to be our breaths, and no one else was there. The building and surroundings were completely empty and unlit so it couldn’t even have been a light flair. I looked at my friend and her expression confirmed that she had seen and felt it too. I quickly took a second picture, and when my friend asked how that one came out, I said, “eh, I think I just got the white pole,” but when I looked up there were no white poles anywhere.

Generally I am a sceptic, so my mind automatically thinks it must have been a camera thing or something else, but I know what I felt, a rush of air, almost a chill, and a presence. I swear there was someone there, several feet in front of me at the abandoned mental hospital building… I guess I will never know for sure what happened. All I do know is that it was something eerie. Something I can not explain.” 

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