It is time we with mental illness spoke out with a clear voice. Simply to say despite our mental illness we can not only exist but thrive. It starts with confidence that is always objectified. Whether it is affected by ourselves or the people around us. I believe mental health is the new civil rights initiative of the 21st century. We who suffer will not be cast aside. Or even more, we shall not be labelled by our illness. We know we suffer but we do not have to be reminded of it by the social culture we live in today. Many call it a stigma to mention mental health. But to get help and get better this stigma must be exhausted. The main focus of this message. However, we still are stronger than the images suggest. We are mental warriors. Let us therefore use the fortitude to drive off our own illness to combat the enemy we encounter which has no face. But rather it’s character is displayed in dismal mental health support for many of our comrades. Displayed in the notion that unsatisfactorily there will never be a cure. Sure it is a major hurdle to overcome. But in the words of our savior Jesus Christ “with God anything is possible.” I know this is a different way of thinking. But I also know thinking any direction else is not only unproductive but dismissive. I have suffered too long to accept the notion that the next generation will deal with the effects of our inaction. Rather I am willing almost certain that we will win the fight against mental illness.

-Kevin Jose

The reason I want to share my story is because I want to bring awareness to mental health and stop the stigmas. I want to promote positive outlooks for moms with mental illness. Not everyone is going to be the same just because they have the same diagnosis. And a diagnosis does not define someone.

I have been affected by mental health personally since my teenage years. I recently have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. When I read about BPD I thought it sounded pretty accurate and it was nice to feel like I new one of the answers as to why I was struggling. The parts of BPD that hit home the most with me were the criteria of the diagnosis stating that those with BPD have a hard time regulating emotions and also that they can struggle with finding purpose.

As a mom it makes me sad to realize I worry so much about purpose or think so much about what my purpose is, what my meaning is. Why can’t I feel like being a mom is enough meaning? Why isn’t being a good wife is enough purpose? The ruminating obsession with questioning what I should be doing and why constantly flows through my head.

During my recent hospitalization followed by an outpatient program I was dealing with multiple areas of mental illness. I’m also diagnosed with generalized anxiety and major depressive disorder. I was 6 months postpartum, a stay at home mom with my baby and her sister, my other daughter, who is 2. At the time I started to experience postpartum depression as well.

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Hello, I have always thought that sharing my story with the mental health community is important to bring hope to others that are just like me.

I’m a 37 year old divorced mother of two boys. I have been in therapy of some kind or another since I was 7 years old. Mental illness runs in my family as well as substance abuse addiction. I believe I was born with my many disorders that progressed and worsened as I got older, abused illegal drugs, prescribed medication and had my children. In my early childhood I showed all the many signs of OCD. I also grew up in an extremely chaotic family where my mother suffered terribly with her own mental illness that was never acknowledged or treated and an emotionally absent father. My two older siblings coped with this by using and abusing drugs and my older sister was put into rehab when I was seven. My older brother simply moved away and is still an addict today covering up his own mental health issues. My younger sister was extremely emotionally disturbed and would act out violently towards my parents but especially towards me. She would later become a drug addict for many years and thankfully entered recovery 4 ½ years ago.

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Hello everyone, my name is Christian O’neal Coleman I developed a passion for work in the helping professions about 5 years ago. Good mental health is key for overall functioning in life and life would simply be hard to live without a healthy mind. I know. If you or a loved one has a mental illness, I’ve been there. I had a low point in my life; a low point I never thought I would rebound from. However, I bounced back and from then on, I decided to embark on both a personal and professional journey to help people who have to take mental illness with them throughout their life journey. In conclusion, I want to let everyone know that happens to be reading this that if you have a mental illness of any kind, you may think you are alone BUT you are not! There is help out there, tons of resources for you. Also, if you are someone who knows someone who may be experiencing a mental illness in their life, you may not always know what to do for that person but always remember this: a pat on the back, a hug or any other cordial act of reassurance is often times more than enough to put a smile on someone’s face.

Please know and always remember that YOU ARE NOT ALONE :-)

Thanks for reading everyone and please be well!

In August of 2019, I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and my doctor recommended exercise to treat it.  This all started in 2005, when I was diagnosed with a postpartum mental illness and treated with medications that have known metabolic side effects.   My diagnosis was later changed to Schizoaffective Disorder.  Every time I’ve been taken off medication, I’ve gotten sick again, so I need the mental health medication, even though it has side effects.

My work provides the benefit of points towards a gym membership. So, I joined the gym after I learned about my diagnosis. As part of joining my gym, I had a free consultation visit with a personal trainer. At the end of the visit, we sat down, and he took out his notepad.

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I Am a 61 yr old woman who has dealt with mental health issues all my life. Sometimes life just becomes too hard for me. I try to navigate the systems that are there to assist us but when I am in a downward spiral my brain does not think and cope as well as it should. I like many people with mental illness are alone. I also have had people close to me use my mental disability as a way to control or hurt me. It takes me a lot to ask for help out of fear that I will be locked up in a mental ward and forced to take medication that either does not work for me or is not good for my mind and body. What I don’t understand is why society thinks that doping a person up to become a slobbering, shuffling idiot with no feelings is better than working with that person first and foremost cognitively instead of numbing their minds and feelings. Ups and downs in life is a part of life but the stigma of being mentally disabled does not make me different than most yet the way society thinks that I need to be put away and medicated to the point of zombie gives me great fear to speak up and ask for help. I have been suicidal in the past since I was a young girl but that doesn’t mean that I still am or want to be yet society drama once u do something u will always do that. Well I don’t want to do that. Some people change and mature and others don’t want to Admit defeat and turn there like me ,yet I am threatened if I open my mouth and let others know how I feel, they will use this in ways of control and do more damage and make the situation worse. I fear if I openly admit I need help because of my mental disability society thinks they have the right to do things against my will that hurt matters instead of help.

Remember you are not define by your mental illness. Your hope becomes your recovery. Your strengths and positive coping strategies empower your destiny to recover.

Recovery is possible if you believe that you are not your diagnosis. The road to recovery is not easy. Hope, strength, support, determination, and education on mental illness can help an individual with a mental illness recover so that they can live a productive and gratifying life in their community. Some individuals with mental illness can work, attend and graduate from college, buy a home, and have families.

Hope equals maintaining a mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy lifestyle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mental Illness Blues
by Ethan Hutchins, October 10, 2017

    Having a major mental illness is very challenging! To those of you who face similar struggles as me, I hope this essay gives you a sense of comfort knowing that other people relate to your struggles.  If you feel intense symptoms, please seek help and find someone to talk with so that you don’t have to go through it alone.  To those of you without mental illness, I hope this essay shows how hard our lives are so that you will have more compassion and empathy for us.
    Many people experience a few minor mental health symptoms during their lifetimes, but luckily for them, the symptoms go away and allow them to continue living their lives undisturbed.  On the other hand, some of us are stuck with the type of major mental illness which overwhelmingly interferes with our lives.  It is hard to concentrate while our emotions and minds race around much busier than the average person’s.  We might be sitting still, but we are kept busy working hard to calm our minds or emotions in order to feel contentment or comfort.  It’s as if we are fighting an internal battle.  Mental illness is an invisible disability that isn’t as obvious as missing a leg or an arm. The symptoms drain our energy and make it hard to work full time jobs.  Some onlookers who lack compassion see our lack of energy and think that we are being lazy, but this is not true.  Trust me: it is exhausting (both mentally and physically) to struggle so much! Imagine what this must be like! When physical sickness strikes us, we become even more debilitated.  For instance, having a common cold on top of depression can make it extremely hard to get out of bed or to feel the slightest joy. 

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Please help my nephew Zechariah. On July 18, 2017, he was arrested by a police officer. He is 22; he has was diagnosed with mental illness since he was 16. His mom called the police in order to get them to transport him to a mental health facility because he was hallucinating, yelling, and being paranoid. Zack has been prescribed medication for his condition and seeing a therapist, but Instead of the police transporting him to a facility. They beat and tased him and took him to Prison on Monday night. Now they are charging him with assault on police office, resisting arrests, and disorderly conduct. His bail is 100,000; His mom told the officers several time that he was mentally ill, but they told her to “shut up.” #helpForTheMentallyiLL #notPrison Please help get the truth out🙏he doesn’t belong in prison..

Mental health is a big deal here in Wichita Falls, TX. We have a state mental hospital and a host of various private practices, yet stigma is almost immediate. Being a functional person with mental illness causes so many to be skeptical of this disability because it can’t be seen. Everyone who suffers with disability be it that which is physically disabling , mentally disabling or both knows all to well the stigma. If we try and stand up for ourselves we are stigmatized even further as “bitter”, “angry”, “lazy”, “ungrateful”, and “entitled” because those who label us these things “pay taxes” so we can survive. We want to do more than merely survive. We want to thrive. We want to succeed. Greg Abbott is governor and he is disabled physically. Many innovators in many different fields and industries who pioneered if not fathered what we now benefit from and enjoy now in this post-modern era, often overcame the setbacks mental illness presented them. They moved with it instead of allowing all that mental illness has with it hold the back. They refused to first- stigmatize themselves. They rejected the stigmas others placed upon them. It was not uncommon that a parent or other influential person in their lives saw in them what others saw as ever incapable and always less than.

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