Terry Gross

Only 11 months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and nearly killed while he was on stage being interviewed at the Chautauqua Festival.

Griffiths also writes about her own mental health issues.

She has dissociative identity disorder, her relationship with Aisha, and her childhood, which ended when her mother was diagnosed with kidney disease, turning Griffiths into a part-time caregiver who was constantly worried about her mother.

In this part of the interview, we talk about a mental health crisis.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, you can call or text for help at 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

That's 988.

I want you to describe a dissociative episode that says something about when the police intervene in mental health crisis, how they don't always know how to deal with it.

So let's start at the beginning with the dissociative episode that caused you to call the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Hotline.

The police mishandling you, that's a problem of who we send to help, you know, to get you to a hospital.

I mean, like if you're having a heart attack, they don't send the police.

They send EMTs.

They send people who, you know, have equipment to help save you, who have some medical expertise, and they take you in an ambulance.

So it's a problem with the system.

So what I'm about to say isn't to demonize all police, but three officers came to your home to take you to the hospital.

And one of them, he not only handcuffed you, but he really hurt your wrist.

I mean, the handcuffs were too tight.

He struggled to put them on you while you were, you know, like put on the ground or pushed onto the floor to cuff you.

And you were complaining about how much it hurt and how bruised your hands were becoming.

and it didn't seem to matter.

I mean, that is not the right way to treat someone who voluntarily called a hotline for mental health help.