I am 32, a United States Marine Corps veteran, an auditor and I am living with bipolar disorder II, which causes symptoms of anxiety and depression episodes.

I never truly understood what it meant to have a mental illness until I realized that I was constantly worrying and feeling down. My depression episodes manifested as days of extreme lows where I struggled to get out of bed and perform day-to-day tasks and activities. I spoke to some friends who were dealing with similar symptoms, and they encouraged me to seek professional help. My bipolar diagnosis was identified when I was in a serious car accident while experiencing a manic episode.

Discovering a mental illness while recovering from a major accident was not easy. Here is what helped me accept my diagnosis and recover from my physical and mental injuries:

• My family and friends stepped up tremendously ready to assist and encourage me. I was an emotional and mental mess, and they helped put me back together.
• I had to position myself to receive advice from my family and friends who are familiar with mental illness and are actively managing their own mental illnesses. I also had to remain open to receiving information regarding coping strategies, being mindful of my mood and warning signs of a potential manic episode or manic depression.
• Setting small goals helped me find my way back to myself. I am not the same person I was before the accident, and trying to get back to that person is not realistic. I had to accept the now me in order to move forward.   

Today, I am different because I am living with my diagnosis and my diagnosis is not controlling me. I see my therapist and psychologist on a regular basis. I am mindful of my mood on a daily basis and aware of the warning signs of manic and depressive episodes. I ultimately have taken charge of my life and my health.

There is a need for mental illness to be recognized as a real and serious condition in community specifically the African American community. People need to be educated on the various mental illness diagnoses and symptoms and see a therapist at least 2-4 times a year to maintain their mental health. Education and therapy ensure they are not putting themselves or others in danger. Many people are unaware of their mental illness and choose to suffer in silence. We need to end this process of thinking and encourage people to seek support.

Mental illness screenings should be done 2-4 times a year for preventative reasons, just like an annual physical examinations and biannual dental cleanings. Mental illness screenings should be no different.

My hope is that people who live with mental illness and the people who love them will eventually see all health as equally important.

In 2004 my life changed. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was twenty years old at the time, and I was a good student. I began feeling depressed and having memory issues. My grades began to slip. I knew something was wrong. I did a little research, and I concluded that I must have bipolar disorder. Mental illness runs in my family so I wasn’t scared to go to the mental health facility to seek help. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has been a difficult twelve years. I have had many jobs. I have acted erratic and gone years without working due to depression. I’m thirty-two now, and I am on a cocktail of medication that is beginning to work. Hopefully, I’ll be working soon. Remember to never give up hope.

The Gift of Mental Illness - And Why You Should Never Give Up on Life

By: Melanie Berman

1 in 4 American adults struggles with mental health issues.  That means someone you know - a friend, a family member, an acquaintance or you.  These struggles are not easy.  They can range from depression or anxiety, to OCD and Bipolar Disorder, to Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia.  There are all types of levels of severity.  As a 22 year old living in Northern California with a Bipolar Spectrum Mood Disorder and OCD, my life has been far from easy.  But I would not trade in the mood disorder for a perfectly chemically balanced brain.  Yeah, you read that right.  I wouldn’t trade the sleepless nights filled with panic or the depressive episodes or even the unexplainable periods of severe irritability.    I wouldn’t trade in the broken relationships, the devastation experienced by both myself and my family with every episodic mood swing, the medical leaves of absence from college, having to quit most jobs I start, or even the lack of independence that the mental health challenges have given me.  Why, you may ask?! Why not trade it in for an easy, dare I say “normal” life??

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I am the first Portland, Oregon-area woman author to publish a memoir about schizoaffective disorder (a little talked about diagnosis of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia).  Most books on mental illness are written by doctors and clinicians, but I feel the personal stories of “lived experience”- like mine and others fighting the pressure of stigma with mental health disorders- are more meaningful because they help us to see the person first, not the diagnoses. Schizo-affective disorder is a hard disease to tackle. Societal pressures seem to dominate your routine and the sheer process of overcoming the stigma of this disease is complicated

I remember when I was young, I used to think people were talking about me and judging me because of who I was. My paranoia carried over into my adulthood. I felt paranoid because I couldn’t focus on something beside myself when people looked at me funny. When I was really upset about something I shook. My knees became rubbery as I disagreed with a speaker in a meeting. Being around higher ups, I felt like I was going to erupt like a tempestuous volcano. I hung my head, not humble like, but in disgrace of not accepting myself for being me. My ship was sinking. My shakiness and weak knees didn’t necessarily stem from my disease. It happened when I was physically abused by my stepfather for defending my brother when he was 7. My stepfather and my mother left him alone to go drinking and when they came back home, I arrived home from work and stood up for my brother. I took a blow to the jaw. My world fell apart and my life changed course.

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8 hours ago, my intelligent, loving son Zac hung himself from the rafters of our farm shed. The reason that accepting treatment for bipolar disorder was so hard as our society would rather claim an STD or addiction before they would ever admit to having a mental illness. Just like many, his symptoms developed during his junior year in college. His family and friends did not know how to react. While he was trying to overcome his delusional and fears his friends were either separating from him or continuing their own lives. 

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Hello, I’m Debra Orozco from Arlee, MT.  I’m a board member of NAMI Missoula, part of America’s largest grassroots mental health organization, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

In 1999, almost 18 years ago, the man I had been married to for 8 ½ years discontinued his treatment for bipolar disorder.  Within weeks, during a manic episode, and despite all our efforts to get him help, he drove his car into the wilderness and simply vanished.  He remains a missing person to this day.

Our daughter was seven years old at that time, and she was severely traumatized by the event.  She was treated for PTSD and then for major depression.  While she was in college, she received the diagnosis we had been dreading—bipolar disorder.  But thanks to good, early, effective treatment, she is not just surviving, but thriving.  She graduated from university in 2014 with two bachelor’s degrees and high honors.  Now she’s back in college completing premed courses and planning to enter medical school in 2018.  Her stepfather and I are so proud of her!

As a veteran, I receive healthcare via Tricare and the VA, so I was able to obtain excellent coverage for her during the first years of her illness.  The ACA, however, did not provide the extension of coverage to 26-year-old dependents for those with military insurance, so she was on her own at 21.  She initially got coverage through the health insurance exchange, and then through Medicaid when Montana enacted Medicaid expansion. 

Without her current access to healthcare, I worry that her bright future will turn much darker.  Please help in this fight to maintain access to affordable healthcare for my daughter, and for so many of our citizens in similar circumstances.

Hi my name is Robbi I’m a 43year-old mother of 3 at 32 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Mental illness runs in my family.   My mother and grandfather were not diagnosed So unfortunately due to lack of awareness of the disease resources and lack of proper medications at 8 I lost my mother and witnessed  her suicide . At 10 I  witnessed  the  death of my grandfather to suicide also I’m a twin. Despite my extreme trauma and my losses I continue to fight for those like me who need support resources hope love kindness caring respect…most of all stop the stigma. I do not drink nor do drugs. I have no criminal  record. I have an Associate degree as an Licenced Optician. I want to do what ever I can to help who ever I can. God has seen me thru and I feel like this organization will help me achieve those goals as well as I feel thats my purpose. It brings me great joy to give others hope. I want to become a motivational speaker like Les Brown.  With Gods help I will❤

My first encounter with mental illness was around age eight or nine when I found out that my dad had bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression). He and my mom had just gotten remarried, and he had a manic episode, which landed him in the hospital. I learned that bipolar disorder could be treated with medication, but that it is a chemical imbalance in the brain for which there is no cure. 

Bipolar disorder is a hereditary illness. I didn’t think that I had depression, but that I had just  been in depressing situations. When my parents divorced, my grades suffered. I lacked confidence. I was teased and tormented by kids in school. When I became an adult, I couldn’t hold a job, and I found myself in trouble with the law. I tried on several occasions to go to college, but I would get discouraged and quit.

In my 20s, I lived with a friend, her parents and her four siblings for about three years. She and her older brother were physically and verbally abusive towards me. I was able to get out of that situation, but I struggled with the effects of it for a long time. I became friends with a woman whom I’d met in church. We were the same age and shared similar interest, but then my “former” friend resurfaced and manipulated her way into the relationship that was blossoming between my new friend and I.

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Mental illness is the most difficult thing that you will ever encounter in your life. But it lays down the road for you to deal with the obstacles that come in front of you in life. You are stronger and tougher person for having to deal with a mental illness—in my case, I suffer from bipolar disorder. Going insane is no picnic ride, but it teaches you to appreciate life in a way that is unique and special, for the mind is the most complex and most powerful thing in the universe. I treasure my sanity, yet I embrace my insanity for it has made an indelible mark on my character as a person. I’m more sensitive, understanding, and loving towards life, and I believe that I would not have this insight if it weren’t for my illness. I’m a better person, because I am bipolar.

I have dealt with mental illness all my life as the road hasn’t been easy. Having 3 hospitalizations before I was 15 wasn’t easy as I had an abusive natural father and an alcoholic stepfather who’s alcoholism was denied by his youngest daughters with more mental illness issues that my alcoholic stepfather denied that I had. The 1st time that I knew that I had bipolar disorder wasn’t until I was in my early 20s and I was grateful that I was in a place that did treat me for it but it was in one of the worst areas on the north side of Chicago. I lived in several different areas of the city that I knew were dangerous as I knew gangs were a problem in the areas I lived in when I found out that alcoholism and/or drugs were a big problem within the family. Fast forward to August 27,1997 I got into a program called Emotions Anonymous which helped me get off meds with a doctors ok and a little over a year later I got into Al-Anon knowing alcoholism was a problem but didn’t realize how big of a problem was until I had left home for good November 18th, 2005 as it was the year before my stepfather died. Many other things I looked into was the possibility that I had PTSD due to the many years that I knew that I was a family member of alcoholics and/or addicts as I added Nar-Anon to the mix about a year after leaving Chicago and moving to the Phoenix area with my mother. 

                           I’m truly grateful that I still attend meetings today while dealing with my illness as I’m working everything to the best of my ability as I just celebrated 23 years in Emotions Anonymous and have 8 years in Nar-Anon..Will have 22 in Al-Anon November 19th and I know that my illness will never be put on the back burner by anyone else other than me as long as I exercise when possible, try to get my weight to a manageable level and attend my meetings I’ll be okay.