I should have realized I was going to be committed that day in 1999, and not come back home. That really messed up my life. If it weren't for that, and something that I had no control over as a child, I really could have made something of my life. So, that commitment, is the single avoidable thing in my life that caused me the most problems.

€It resulted in my eventual drop out of college.
€It started my suicidal thoughts.
€It got me involved with the Mental Health Center.
€It wrecked my spirit and my goals.
€It turned me into an all around pessimist. (Granted, life would have done that to me eventually anyway.)
€It just took too much time out of my life in an important time.
€It caused me to lose my home which led me to going back to more hospitals until Social Security gave me the money to get a new apartment.
€It made me lose all faith in the medical profession (especially the mental health division).
€It turned me against my family.
€It caused me to lose my job and made it difficult for me to get jobs in the future.

I'm just now getting my life back on track, though it will never be what it was before I was committed. I should have known it was going to happen and I should have left town instead of coming back home. I'm not an idiot. I'm bipolar, which means I'm unusually intelligent. I should have been able to figure it out. But such is life.

So yeah. My biggest mistake is coming home that day.