http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm This is the Real Lives Blog from Mental Health America en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:36:52 -0500 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:33:00 -0500 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss webmaster@mentalhealthameica.net webmaster@mentalhealthameica.net webmaster@mentalhealthameica.net http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm no http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/A-fight-using-resourcefulness-and-determination by Angela in North Carolina My strength is derived from my passion for advocating for those who suffer from mental illness as I have shared their pain. I am a highly-motivated individual who chooses to use my own mental illnesses as an asset rather than a liability. [More] Recovery Depression Borderline Personality Disorder Anxiety Seasonal Affective Disorder Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:33:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/A-fight-using-resourcefulness-and-determination http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/With-therapy-I-have-learned-to-cope-better by Cathrine in Michigan My name is Cathrine. My birth was traumatic and a root cause of my mental and physical conditions. I suffer from BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), Depression, ADD, Anxiety and panic disorders. Some of my mental problems I have suffered from all my life and some have gotten worse and developed due to my hypothyroidism and my environment. [More] Depression Hospitalization Unemployment Uninsured Borderline Personality Disorder ADHD Anxiety Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:18:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/With-therapy-I-have-learned-to-cope-better http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/Writing--the-best-therapy-and-its-free by Deborah in California From childhood, I vividly remember sitting on top of my shoes inside of the closet, as I hid away and cried. I would cry for hours, if no one caught me and yelled at me to stop. Sadness was my existence; I did not have the words to articulate my experience. Almost every day, I went through an inexplicable pain; not only did I suffer with depression, but also I was being sexually abused, and I did not have the words to voice my experience. Living in a small, rural town during the 70's meant that family secrets prevailed. A book about molestation did not exist in the town library. [More] Hospitalization Trauma Borderline Personality Disorder Recovery Abuse PTSD Self-Injury Depression Anxiety Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:45:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2009/4/10/Writing--the-best-therapy-and-its-free http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/15/My-illness-has-disrupted-my-life-and-the-lives-of-those-around-me by Jacki in New Jersey I have had mental illness starting at age 14. My illness has disrupted my life and the lives of those around me. At any given time, I have been very disruptive to myself. At the young at of 15, I was not the child you wanted to be sitting in your child's math class. [More] Self-Injury Borderline Personality Disorder Bipolar Disorder Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:15:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/15/My-illness-has-disrupted-my-life-and-the-lives-of-those-around-me http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/14/I-fight--I-fight-everyday by Stacy in New York I am 22 years old. I have been fighting this battle successfully since I was 14. I have attempted to quit many times. I believe God has been trying to tell me something by keeping me here. I fight against the depression every day and win. Thank God for big miracles. It isn't easy. I try to eat 3 to 4 balanced meals a day. I try to sleep regularly. It is hard. Just when life is tough enough, something else comes along to test my abilities to stay sane. [More] PTSD Depression Self-Injury Borderline Personality Disorder Eating Disorder Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:30:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/14/I-fight--I-fight-everyday http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/Advocating-for-parental-rights by Mikayla in Arizona My story is one of parental rights and mental disability. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 30 with major depression. Eleven years later, I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. I was very high functioning and worked as a corporate travel agent for 22 years. I was also attending college earning A's. [More] Depression Borderline Personality Disorder Bipolar Disorder Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:04:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/Advocating-for-parental-rights http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/Grateful-for-the-life-I-now-have 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. [More] PTSD Borderline Personality Disorder Recovery Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Eating Disorder Anxiety Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:31:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/Grateful-for-the-life-I-now-have http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/One-Day-at-a-Time by Shannon in New York I have been struggling with mental illness since I was a child. At the age of seven, my mother and father separated. I started pulling chunks of hair out of my head. I would wake up with a pillow filled with hair or the way I saw it, shame. Shame has been my biggest M/O for relapse or suicidal thoughts. My mother and father took me to a dermatologist where they diagnosed me with alopecia arietta. I lied and said the hair fell out. I held on to that secret until years later. [More] Abuse Alcoholism Self-Injury Borderline Personality Disorder Substance Abuse Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:10:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/9/One-Day-at-a-Time http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/5/30year-journey-with-depression-leads-to-happiness-and-wisdom by Paula in Pennsylvania My diagnosis is major recurrent depression with a personality disorder. I should have been in therapy as a child, but only started in my late 20s. I am in my late 50s now. [More] Alcoholism Borderline Personality Disorder Bipolar Disorder Anxiety Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:35:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/5/30year-journey-with-depression-leads-to-happiness-and-wisdom http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/4/Finding-the-meaning-of-hope by Ellen in Massachusetts My story is a story of others holding hope for me for a very long time until I could find hope for myself and find the meaning of hope. Basically, my story started the day I was conceived, but it came to fruition in 1981. I graduated from high school in 1981 and to a lot of people's surprise I applied for college. To my surprise, I received a scholarship from my school's booster club and off to college I went. [More] Self-Injury Depression Hospitalization Borderline Personality Disorder Suicidal Ideation Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:52:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/4/Finding-the-meaning-of-hope http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/3/Faith-through-tough-times-has-been-salvation by Lisa in North Carolina I remember very well the reason I started falling apart. I was in nursing school, working two part-time jobs, and my mother was very sick. Within a matter of 24 hours, I lost my mom, and I got kicked out of nursing school because of low grades. After these losses, I became very depressed, suicidal, and homicidal. [More] Self-Injury Depression Hospitalization Borderline Personality Disorder Suicidal Ideation Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:27:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/3/Faith-through-tough-times-has-been-salvation http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/2/Treatment-sought-for-cooccurring-disorders by Madison in Pennsylvania Because of my mental illness, I had to leave my profession in social work and claim disability. It put a strain on my marriage, resulting in a divorce and emotional strain on my parents and brother. [More] Schizoaffective Disorder Hospitalization Divorce Eating Disorder Abuse Alcoholism Substance Abuse PTSD Borderline Personality Disorder Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:55:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/12/2/Treatment-sought-for-cooccurring-disorders http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/11/10/Things-that-would-not-upset-most-other-people-I-went-into-hysterics-over by Lilian in Florida When I look back I can now see that I started to show symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) when I was ten years old. My symptoms did not become obvious to the people around me until I was 14 and then even longer before I was misdiagnosed at the age of seventeen. My mounting unstable emotional outbursts were what seemed to draw people's attention the most. I was incapable of controlling my ever increasing emotional states that would come and go at the drop of a hat. The yelling, screaming, crying, and throwing things for the smallest of infractions. Things that would not upset most other people, I went into hysterics over. [More] Alcoholism Depression Hospitalization Borderline Personality Disorder Family History Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:00:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/11/10/Things-that-would-not-upset-most-other-people-I-went-into-hysterics-over http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/11/10/Just-because-I-have-a-mental-illness-does-not-mean-that-I-am-not-a-successful-human-being by Bonnie in New Jersey I am 32-years-old and am working towards recovery. I have not always believed in recovery. It has been a journey and to me, recovery is a journey with its ups and downs, as is life. I have been battling emotional challenges for the better part of my life. My earliest diagnosis was ADHD at the age of 4, along with a learning disability. I learned as a young child how to combat the illness and continue to try and try. I was quite successful in school. I was taught never to give up and to fight against the system, especially when my parents and I would be told that I wouldn't be able to do something because of my disability. I learned to ask questions when I had questions, and I was a very successful student. Along my college path, I ran into many stumbling blocks where I met up with the notion of having to take psychotropic medication. I was never specifically against it although I must say that there were medications that I was adamant against taking; I didn't know why, but in later years, I learned that when I would have a gut instinct about something, I had to learn to listen to myself. If I did not listen, I would pay the price. [More] Recovery Borderline Personality Disorder Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:12:00 -0500 http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/reallives/index.cfm/2008/11/10/Just-because-I-have-a-mental-illness-does-not-mean-that-I-am-not-a-successful-human-being