It’s a daily struggle especially when family doesn’t have any educated input. NAMI has family support groups to help them understand a loved one’s illness and how they fight to stay stable daily. I go through weekly therapy and take medications like Geodon and Klonopin to stay well. Bipolar is a difficult illness to have especially without educated family or friends. You must always listen to your doctors and maintain your med intake even when you may get paranoid and believe you don’t need them, listen to your docs. With their help, I’m hoping to one day be able to hold down a full-time job again.

“This is the last straw,’ I thought, rushing toward my car. Ten years of chronic run-ins between my relative and law enforcement completely frayed my nerves. Now, the VA refused admittance to their psych unit, even though delusional thinking patterns were obvious. Returning to northern Alabama from Nashville, my relative jumped from the vehicle. Five days in ICU and five weeks in a recovery unit finally warranted a stay in the VA unit.

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I am stoic, but it hasn’t been easy. My family has victimized me so, do people on the streets where I live. I have taken F2F and peer support groups and have been a facilitator for NAMI Connections Recovery support group for almost 2 yrs. We have a hard life in our city but I stand up for myself. I’m ready to go back to school or work hopefully as a peer support specialists. I was denied the job because I don’t have transportation…that is a work in progress I pray…the bus is not easy to take but now I see the youth and I would love to work with them and become a Youth Counselor!..I was trained at a day care center to teach an Autism child. That was fun :-). I am 29 and still have no kids. I’ll see what the future holds. Peace O:-) love and happeness!

Our NAMI Western MA class will be wearing green ribbons to mark Mental Health Awareness Week!

Last night NAMI-WM celebrated over 30 years of mission accomplished by providing  education, support and advocacy! Hundreds of VIPS attended the celebration of everyone’s accomplishments, as VIPS!

The Iris Project is out and about providing outreach as we work to help support our mission with a small donation in return for a silk iris. The Iris is a symbol of hope and recovery!

In Our Own Voice will be presenting to our Family to Family Class soon!

Stay Strong!

Ella S.

www.namiwm.org

co-teacher for Family to Family

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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I had the pleasure of taking a NAMI Family-to-Family course that felt like a college course. Not because it was difficult or boring but because it obtained so much structure and information. I learned about depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders to name a few illnesses. I also learned about many more and had the chance to meet beautiful people that were attempting to recover, reaching for hope and looking for help. I never felt judged. I enjoyed fresh food during our classes, had great speakers that sang, and was overwhelmed by the sense of community. The stigma did not reach through the doors. I became stronger as a parent and mother.

I have tried, off and on, for two years to find a support group in my area, have left messages for the local NAMI representatives in the brochures I’ve come across… emailed people… and no one seems to be able to get back to me with information.   This is my feedback: That it needs to be clearer where the meetings are and what days.  It’s hard enough to be able to get anything even started with mental illness… not to mention continuing to try when there is no response.

Thanks for your time.

I grew up in a home with a father who had bipolar illness. It was the ’50s and on I remember most but I learned from notes my mother made that he probably had this since his early ‘20’s after his return from WWII. There were no psychotropic drugs. They electrified his brain once when his depression was seriously catatonic and when he came home he didn’t know who I was. His illness had a major impact on my life, of course, but I realize now that many of the things I was angry about were due to his illness. My sister was diagnosed with bipolar illness in her ’40s but I think she had it much earlier, too. She is in recovery and continues to hone her coping skills. Recently, we started a Connection and a Family Support group in our small town in Ohio. We received NAMI training and we have a small band of NAMI supporters. We are planning educational and advocacy events. We are fledgling and emerging, but we’re here to stay.

I am a 56 year old mother and very proud grandmother of three. I have struggled with anxiety nearly my whole life. When I was a child, my anxiety caused me to overeat and I was an obese little girl, tipping the scales at 200 pounds in 5th grade. My family has a history of anxiety and my mother did not have the strength or support that we have today. She was a woman of the “valium era” and didn’t drive or work outside of the home. She had little recreation. She took care of her eight children and worked tirelessly in our home.

Even with the fear I always had inside of me, I still had some inner strength and a need to be a voice for others, especially children. When I was a young mother, I was so infatuated by my beautiful children I didn’t recognize that they too, had anxiety issues. My son did not present to us, his teachers, etc. until high school, when his struggle was too hard to bear and he began acting out. After two years of college, he met a woman who was strong to his weak, outspoken to his backwardness; a take the bull-by-the-horns sort of a person. After a brief relationship, she became pregnant and there was an immediate wedding. We were told just to come on a certain date-it was all planned out without our input or advice at all.

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I was diagnosed in the year 2012 with schizophrenia. The days were long and life seemed helpless. I felt that i could not tell anyone about how i was feeling. Then one day I spoke out, it was the best thing I have ever done. I started to see a therapist. There my support grew and my family accepted what was really wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with being schizophrenic you just have to have a passion. My passion was back after a year and now i am going to school, making music, and socializing. schizophrenia help me to realize do not give up your dreams because i have a disorder. The disorder does not have power over you but you have the power in you to overcome!