Mental Health Awareness…. end the stigma…This is for my mother. .Jean…this is our story… My mother suffered her whole life with mental illness…I watched her ups and downs from as far back as i can remember..she was brilliant and artsy creative productive and efficient took care of everything perfectly.. we moved 10 times in 13 years because my dad wanted to keep her happy and she would decorate and remodel the houses painting wall papering and taking care of me and my sisters…. and then she would start to change and become crazed over whelmed and aggitated unable to finish all of the projects or keep up and get angry easily and scream and yell and break things and come after me verbally or with a belt and be out of control then she would slow down and crumble and crash into a deep tearful depression unable to get out of bed and take care of us kids and our home and basic necessities many times leading to hospitalization on the psyciatric ward…I remember visiting her many times in different wards ..i didn’t understand it when I was young why my mommy was like this…why she loved me and hated me…was angry and sad….

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Hello,   My name is Minyon Bond. This composition is about my life as a mental patient and as a subscriber to NAMI.  NAMI has asked for stories from persons involved with mental illness. I have been a NAMI member and subscriber for many years. The comprehensive overview which NAMI provides has been of frequent value. It is my hope that this story may help others like me.    I am one of those people. I am a Consumer.  I am BIPOLAR. I am a 73 year old woman with BIPOLAR 1 DISORDER. I have been under psychiatric care for 42 years.  I have taken many psychiatric medications. I’ve had three psychiatrists, my current one for over 35 years. Along the way I worked in field research with plants, in basic research in spinal cord injury regeneration and for 33 years as a professor of Biology/Botany in a local Community College.  I have been retired for six years.

I spent my best 35 years with Denise, my dearest friend and deepest love. There were good times and bad times but she was there for ALL times. In 2014 she died of Swine flu. Last year my friend David  introduced me to Tim. Tim produces music. Because of his patient coaching, Tim now also produces my music. Most of my time is spent writing, composing, playing, singing and recording our songs.  Life is good again. Different but good.

How did I get here?  In January, 1975, I entered a mental hospital. This was labelled as a failed suicide attempt. Why failed? My friend David hauled me out of my swimming pool. My original diagnosis: SCHIZOPHRENIA. I was treated with several medications from the Thorazine family.  These ultimately resulted in profound depression.  None of the several varieties of antidepressants helped.

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Hello my name is Silvia Bures Brownlow. I am from Barcelona, Spain. As you can hear I have a big accent so please stop me if you don’t understand and I will be happy to repeat it.

I am taking a class to be Family and Peer Support Specialist from NAMI California. NAMI stands for National Alliance in Mental illness.

I am here today because I want to help you. Also, I can give you some information and services that you or your family can use.

I have a life experience living with a mental heath diagnoses.

I was diagnosed 10 years ago. I felt confused, scared and lonely.

 I used to be so ashamed of being mentally ill that I try to hard to hide it until I realize that I am who I am with my ups and downs, happy or sad.

Also, I can relate with you and your experience of being hospitalized because I was too.  I thought that I will never be able to come back to be a productive person to society and work again.

Being in a mental Hospital change me.

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Statistics state that 1 in 5 people struggle with mental illness but I’m wondering how many people with mental illness but don’t feel safe and comfortable sharing. The term mental illness carries a stigma that most are ashamed or afraid to carry. I have generalized anxiety disorder along with panick attack disorder but that does not mean that I am my “mental illness” just as someone with high blood pressure isn’t labeled as such. Everyone has struggles and issues and should be able to express themselves and seek out the positive in life! I am optimistic about life and know that the options are endless.. the more I share and open up the lighter I feel. I am not alone. You are not alone. I will continue to be open and transparent and Use my anxiety to fuel the fire and view my shortcomings as a strengths that Are continually shaping who I am and giving me goals for who I want to be.

Just saw the play “Twisted Melodies” (singer/musician Donny Hathaway Mental Heath Struggles) in New York today. Wow, what a beautiful way to share, educated and bring to life the importance of understanding and lifting the stigma of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia. Please Support this production so that it can reach every state in this country. Thank you!

The idea of having a Bipolar Disorder stung me for a long time. When I’m feeling down, sometimes I feel the pressures of the stigma revolving around my mental illness. I always felt like there was a “normal” Valerie or a status quo that I had to

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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.

I am a military veteran. I also grew up in a family that would never support mental health, nor recognize that I had bipolar and hyper activity symptoms. As I continued to grow up, I had academic and social problems. I could only relate to my peers through sports. In this area, I excelled. As I continued through high school, I became an athletic phenomenon. I had become a national silver and golden gloves boxing champion. I was an all state football star. I was an all state track star. I even received scholarships to major universities. The university scouts predicted I would become one of the most feared defensive end’s in college football and one of the fastest 400 m and 110 m hurdlers in track and field.

I lacked the self esteem, for academics - so I refused all offers. I joined the military instead; knowing that I could excel in the military. I did. I had a great career, full of adventure, exotic countries and people, humanitarian missions, and so on -  during war time and peace. I thought I was just fine, as a person. Looking back, I was a train wreck, looking for a place to happen. Not because of the military, but because I had a genetic condition, that no one picked up on - in a conducive environment. I went through years of depression and anger, not knowing what was “wrong with me”. I blamed everything and everyone else. Because I was a proud man, and loyal.

As years passed, I became worse. Then I was in an accident, that left me with a  medium brain injury, broken shoulder, broken left hip, twisted pelvis and a spinal column that is still degenerating in the disks and vertebrate. I was also diagnosed with other chronic physical disabling conditions. Physicians told my family, that I would not live much longer. Were they ever wrong! I know my higher power had other plans.

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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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