by CJ in North Carolina
I am a mental health consumer and a former mental health professional. I am very concerned with the way services have disappeared in the last eight years. I'm a 55 year-old female with numerous health issues and lived in my truck for four very cold months in 2006. It was hell!
by Eileen in Pennsylvania
I lost my job in the late 1990s. I have been jobless since. I have been going to therapy for the last 10 years. I got to the point where my life was stagnant and I was tired of the same nonsense everyday. So I started going to school to become a medical billing coder clerk. It should be interesting to see if I can do it. I have to. I will not fail and let my depression and anxiety get to me. I need the certificate so I can get a good job.
My husband and I live on our two checks from disability, and it is just not enough. I have made up my mind that I can and I will do it. I have to go to school for another year. I am glad to express myself.
I am on all kinds of medicine for my depression and anxiety. I changed my strong medicine for depression to the night time so I take 600 mgs of that strong medicine, and I take anti-anxiety medication. I am in terrible pain from arthritis – from head to toe literally. Please pray for me. I'm a Hebrew-Christian and need your prayers.
by Mary Theresa in Pennsylvania
For much of my life I did not realize I had worth as a person. It prevented me from using and improving my talents. I was always living in fear even in the most common situations. In my relationships, I was undemanding. I felt I didn't have any rights. I did not know I had the right to have wants. I did not have the ability to resolve any differences or conflict. Instead, I would be resentful and not recognize that I was pushing down anger.
by Bonnie in Pennsylvania
I have lived a life that I would not want anyone to live. At the age of 13, I went on my first diet even though I was not overweight. This was when my life began spiraling out of control. It took about four years to get a diagnosis and that diagnosis was anorexia nervosa. I went from 110 pounds to 90 pounds to 69 pounds over an eight-year period.
by Angela in Alaska
My depression started while I was young. I was a child born from an alcoholic, so I had missing endorphins (I found this out after doing research on depression. When I was 13 years old, I was medicated for severe depression after my father, who had abandoned my family when I was four, died.
by Joan in Ilinois
"Does he love us? Does he love us? Does he love us? I look around & all I see is destruction. I guess we're all counting on his Divine Intervention." These are lyrics from a Matthew Sweet song on the Girlfriend CD. I bought it in Feb, 1993, in the depths of depression, This CD has always had great meaning for me, especially the first song, Divine Intervention. Listening to it, projecting into it, I wondered if there was a way to get weight off my body, the invisible kick out of my stomach and let me see the world in focus - not distortion – again.
by Tami in Tuscon
For years I was made to believe there was something really wrong with me, and if anyone had listened to my story in part or in whole it would sound pretty NUTS. I have been treated like some sort of criminal and given medications to make my head trauma worse. This went on for years, and when I refused to take drugs, I was made out to be the crazy one. But in reality, I am not crazy at all.
by Lezley in North Dakota
The subject of mental illness is of great interest to me. Perhaps you could say a social cause to pacify my conscience? Or, a vain attempt to fill the idle hours of an overindulged housewife? No. There is no self-sacrificing cause and there are few idle hours. The interest is personal: the illness my own!
by Joan in Wisconsin
Early in my childhood, I was sexually abused and threatened to stay quiet. I have often wondered if those events had not occurred would I have had a normal life, even though mental illness is prevalent in my maternal gene pool. As my young life progressed, secrets came out and people were hurt.
by Darrell in Georgia
I have lost two jobs in nine years. Most of the time, I do not have much to offer to my family -- just my existence. I have been married to a wonderful woman for 28 years.
