Skip to main content

Are you aware?

About 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year.

One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions.

Fewer than one-third get treatment.

Observed each year during the first full week of October, Mental Illness Awareness Week serves as a time to raise public awareness of serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, as well as post traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.

I'm celebrating by visiting my psychiatrist tomorrow and my therapist on Wednesday! How convenient is THAT?!

Actually, I admit that this awareness week crept up on me. Funny how you forget you're crazy when you're feeling normal. I use the word "crazy" in a sort of self-deprecating fashion. I'll fully admit to the double standard...I'm allowed to use it, you're not. At any rate, my meds -- three of them at the moment -- are at therapeutic levels and I'm trying to cope with the stresses and stumbles of life.

I hope you'll take a moment or two to visit the NAMI Web site and read about the latest mental health findings and information on stigma surrounding mental illness, and maybe observe a moment of silence or pray or whatever it is that you do to pay respect to those who haven't found the peace and wellness that I'm enjoying at the moment.

Finally, if you can find your way past the deluge of Ken Burns National Park footage on PBS, check your local listings for the program Minds on the Edge: Facing Mental Illness. It is scheduled to run during awareness week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So, I Changed My Mind

More than four years ago, the blog and I parted ways. I needed a change. A whole lot happened in my world since then. I switched jobs a couple times. My kid went from an elementary school tween to a teenage high schooler. We built a new house and moved. Both my parents and my sister have passed. The world around me changed as well. Mass shootings, racism, the #metoo movement, a misogynistic bigoted narcissist in the White House ... go ahead, add to the list. Toss your woes into this dumpster fire we call 2019.  I appreciate my previous sentiment, that I was no longer wandering. But let's be honest, we're all trying to find our way through this mess. I decided to reboot the blog to give myself a creative outlet, a way to sort through the confusion and frustration and attempt to make sense of it all. I have a voice, and I'm not keen to silence it anymore. Guess what? I'm back, bitches.
Post a Comment
Read more

Holy Separated-At-Birth, Batman!

Gary Oldman...meet Uncle Knit-Knots from Imagination Movers.
Post a Comment
Read more

In memoriam...

I remember the first time I heard the name "Les Anderson." A bunch of Wichita State University communication majors were sitting around on campus, talking about classes they planned to take. Several people warned me: watch out for Les Anderson. He was tough. He had a murderous grading scale. It was nearly impossible to get an A. They weren't kidding. But he wasn't tough just to be a tyrant. From his teaching sprang a fleet of incredible, successful journalists, writers, editors, broadcasters, public relations experts, advertisers, non-profit professionals...I could go on and on. Most importantly, he created a legion of people who wanted to make a difference in the world. The greatest gift Les gave to them all? He believed in them, cared about them for their own personal stories as well as the stories they told for class assignments or in the pages of his hometown newspaper. Les was my teacher. My boss. My mentor. My conscience. My champion. My friend. When I started c...
5 comments
Read more