Home » bipolar disorder » Page 2

Emails From Readers

by

Since the publication of my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, I have received hundreds of emails from readers. Sadly, many are from parents desperately seeking advice about how they can get their son or daughter help. Others are from readers whose adult children are in jails and prisons because of untreated mental illnesses. A few are from parents whose children committed suicide. But there are others that make me hopeful — encouraging notes from dedicated mental health workers and success stories written by readers who have found a variety of methods to control their symptoms and enjoy life at its fullest.

Here is an email that I recently received that I want to share with you because it provides a viewpoint by a consumer that often is not heard.

“I am in my late 30s and officially diagnosed as mentally ill at age 13 after my first suicide attempt. I had long periods of depression and had my first manic episode at age 16. I was paranoid, hearing voices, unable to sleep or read. All I knew was that I was going crazy, but there were no words for it then or any real help.

I was kicked out of high school after missing 15 days of school while I was too manic or depressed to attend classes. No treatment or help from the school system were offered (despite being a straight A honors student with advanced placement classes and not a single discipline issue) and I was told by my single parent to “get a job.” I did just that and was quickly fired for crying all day at work.

Click to continue…

Outpouring of Frustration, What’s Next?

by

I have been inundated this week with emails, mostly from parents and family members, expressing frustration and anger about our broken mental health care system. 

Here is a sampling:

*You touched my heart today on Sunday’s CNN show. I tried to get my son help over and over. He is now in prison. .. What now? No education, no job, a criminal record….no help.

Click to continue…

The Mysterious Human Brain

by

Does anyone really understand the workings of the human brain?  

One of the things I enjoy about traveling to give speeches is that I get to hear other people’s stories. Some of the stories are inspirational. They are about recovery. But others are sad. Regardless of where I go, I meet someone in the audience who has endured much worse than my son and me. Yes, my son has been arrested. Yes, he’s been shot with a Taser by police. But he is not in jail, is not homeless, is not belligerent, is not missing, and is not dead.  Those situations are a grim reality for many parents.

Occasionally, I hear a story that surprises me and that happened during a recent trip. It’s a recovery story.

Click to continue…

Using Music to Combat Stigma

by

Without a journey there’s no return

It’s the inevitable way of growing up

        Lyrics from “Listen” by Tiago Bettencourt and Cool Hipnoise

Encontrar+SE, a grassroots mental health advocacy group started by Filipa Pahla in Portugal, recently found an imaginative way to fight stigma. A few years ago, Filipa persuaded twenty of her nation’s most popular singers and song writers to participate in a ten-month long, anti-stigma campaign. 

A different artist performed an original song each month about mental illness. The song writers were asked to compose lyrics that first described a problem and then offered a solution. The songs were broadcast on the radio and in music videos on television.

The first three songs introduced listeners to mental illnesses. The themes were : Discriminating/Integrating, Denying/Accepting, and Separating/Uniting. 

Click to continue…

Will Portugal Copy Our Mistakes?

by

 The advocacy group Encontrar+SE invited me to Porto, Portugal recently to speak about the closing of our state mental hospitals here in the U.S. This was my third overseas trip, having gone to Iceland and Brazil last year.  

Founded in 2006, Encontrar+SE   is the creation of Filipa Palha, a psychologist, university professor, and determined mental health activist who is trying to make Portuguese health officials accountable.

The government there has announced plans to close all of the nation’s mental hospitals, but it has not allocated any money nor taken any steps to create community-based mental health services.

Sound familiar?

Click to continue…

When do you go public?

by
What I like most about writing a blog is that it provides all of us another venue for exchanging ideas.  So I am going to ask for your help and advice.
One of the many questions that Mike and I wrestle with is: When should a person with a mental illness reveal his disorder? 
Should he disclose it on a job application when he is seeking employment?
Should he bring it up during an interview for a job?
On a personal level, when Mike is dating, when should he — if ever — mention it?