It can be frustrating to struggle with your mental health and to get your family and friends to understand where you are coming from.
When Marc sent us this poem it wasn't with the desire for it to go up at a certain time, but we felt that it was a perfect poem to go up during Mental Health Month.
Lately, we have seen a lot of shows on the darker side—we started off with Sweeney Todd in Visalia, then The Bad Seed at 2nd Space, and now Next to Normal in Selma. While all three shows are wonderful and wonderfully done, Next to Normal is the one among them that is most likely to strike a chord with many because of its realistic portrayal of mental illness. It is also the most likely to have you reaching for the tissues.
Former Major League Baseball legend and World Series champion of the New York Mets and New York Yankees, Darryl Strawberry, has a new position he plays now and that’s being an ordained minister. He came to CrossCity Church in Fresno on April 23 and 24 to do a service for those in attendance with the message of how God turned his mess into a message.
Five years ago, I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and panic disorder. I had been dealing with all of them for far longer than five years, but I didn’t understand myself well enough to know what was happening. Although, some days, I think I knew the whole time what was going on, and I just didn’t want to face that reality.
In 1987, Joseph Robinson, a young man who struggled with mental illness, died as a result of a violent encounter with the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee.
I cringe anytime I hear someone talking about finding "the cure." It’s the same feeling that strikes me when someone walks into my office, where we help people with mental health problems, proclaiming how they just want to “fix” their loved one.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM). This is a chance to learn about signs and symptoms of mental illnesses and help fight stigma that keeps people from receiving vital care. This month’s column won’t focus directly on MHAM, but upon a recent challenge in the mental health field, the Netflix Original series 13 Reasons Why, which since its release has generated a lot of buzz, especially from mental health and suicide prevention organizations.
I turned 37 on April 20, 2017. Another candle on the cake. Another year of beautiful life. Another year of surviving mental illness. I reflected on my life. It has almost been 20 years that I have been living with schizoaffective, bipolar type. However, back then, my diagnosis was bipolar disorder with psychotic features. I can’t believe I have made it this far. I have survived multiple suicide attempts and about 12-15 psychiatric hospitalizations. I survived all the delusions.
“The key to keeping your balance is to know when you’ve lost it.” I don’t know who said that, but knowing I had lost my balance in life was the turning point in learning to live with bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis. Unknown to me as an undergraduate nearly a half-century ago, I had both incurable neurological diseases. Most disorders have obvious symptoms, but mine were hidden working like a computer virus destroying a marriage, a career, and ultimately leaving me living alone, in poverty, and planning suicide.
