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.

My brother, Mark. was diagnosed w/schizophenia @ age 28. We’ve gone through a living hell ever since. He’s now 51. You name it, we’ve been there. Hospitals, jails, prisons, group homes, assisted living homes, our own homes, witnessing, reporting neglect/abuse. Our family has been there. I wouldn’t wish it on my own worst enemy. Oh and GUILT! That’s a big one that each of us have struggled with. I hate the disease but love the victim. He’s my brother, my parent’s son. He’s a Father with a son. We’ve found that through it all that those who are least likely to understand are his friends, church and family. Looks like it’s here to stay. It’s a never ending cycle. You may ask, who is this guy? Well he was a first to be beautiful and only baby son. He was a great kid. A joy. Playful. Intelligent. Handsome. He went to school..never failed a grade. He went to college. He got a great job, married, had a family. It all started going downhill in his mid to mid 20’s. I went into mental health. I quit jobs in order to take less paying jobs just to be near him. I spent my social life and enormous part of my life just devoted to him. I’m 57 now. Who’ll see that he’s taken care of when I, his sister is gone? Who’ll do it when our parents are gone? I gave him over to God a long time ago and his abusers will, if they haven’t already, reap what they have sown. Family members have to be their voice for they will never be heard or ever taken seriously…

5 years ago, my father committed suicide. It still bothers me to this day, and is the reason I cannot sleep at night. I should have known how to help, but all I can do now is focus on myself. I’ve been under mental heath management for almost 6 years, and I don’t regret one second. Although, I miss my father more than anything, I am grateful for my family, who love me, and the support I’ve received over the years. #ITS TIME

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!

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 finally have time to write my intro. Two youngest are at school and my oldest (Corinne) is with her grandma.

My name’s Amber and I joined the online support group about 3 weeks ago and have already gained tremendous knowledge and support from this wonderful group of moms and dads.

Soooooo, I have three girls, Corinne 11.5, Annika 8.5, and Louisa 6. Annika and Louisa are my NT (Neurotypical) kids. They both play soccer, are the center of their social circles, and can be rationalized with. They definitely have their emotional ups and downs but it is usually due to fatigue or hunger.

Corinne is my beautiful challenge. She was born ten days late, emergency C-section due to chord compression. I had my Bradley Plan and Corinne had “Corinne’s Plan”. Corinne was impossible to soothe even in the hospital. She would scream, stiffen and get herself so worked up if anything was stimulating her. I would have to calmly latch her on and if anything changed in her environment she would become so agitated it would take her at least 30 minutes to calm her and latch her back on. I could not connect at all with her as a newborn. I nursed her and co-slept because I felt these things would help connect us. I can remember when Corinne was 4 weeks old looking down at her and saying “I don’t even like you” she was soooo hard to bond with. I know now that I was suffering from postpartum and it made things much harder to have such a challenging baby.

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“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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You don’t know my husband you just see what you want to see. You don’t see an intelligent man who served his country who’s lost his lively hood and almost his family due to mental illness. You don’t see his family who struggle to cope at times when life is out of control. See what you want to see, look away, feel threatened when there is nothing to threatened about. People are broken and sometimes in life it’s hard to get up and put yourself together. Everyone needs understanding, a kind word and nice gesture. There are miracles. Sometimes they are hard to find but they happen they did for me. Be a friend to someone, volunteer your time. 

I have suffered with OCD for over 30 years and am a 48 year old female.  I was diagnosed in 1993 the first one in my family, but since that time 5 of 6 in my family have been diagnosed including both my parents, one sister and one brother.  The only sister that doesn’t have OCD now has a daughter with hoarding which is a form of OCD.  I am married with four kids and 3 of 4 of my kids are now diagnosed and on medication, too. 

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