Monday, January 28, 2013

Mental Health Mondays #1

PURPOSE:  to reduce some of the stigma associated with mental illness by talking about it more...in public.

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Mental Health Mondays is my freshwoman foray into the world of hosting a blog link-up. Mental Health has been an interest/concern/passion of mine for most of my adult life. One of the gifts I received at the onset of puberty was a tendency towards depression.  I call it a gift, because without having dealt with depression for nearly 40 years now, I would have become a much different person.

I'm not advocating that everyone go out and get them a bottle of depression at the corner pharmacy.  It is also a very frustrating condition.  Sometimes I get angry that I will probably have to take meds for this the rest of my life.  Then I am very grateful that these medications exist and I don't have to suffer.

I am also not off my rocker, a sandwich short of a picnic or not playing with all of my marbles. I don't own a rocker (although I'd like to); my picnics are never short of food and I do not discriminate between my marbles.

But don't call me normal, either.  That is also a dirty word at our house.  Differences can be celebrated.

Many people tend to treat someone with a mental illness as "less than human".  For four years, I worked with adults who had MR/DD (mental retardation and/or developmental disabilities) in a residential/teaching facility.  Most people  out and about were at least kind, but some people's behavior was just...bad.  I've seen people move to the opposite side of an aisle in a store, get up and move to a different table in a restaurant, and make inappropriate comments.

I even heard of one hospital ER staff making a comment, "Why don't they take 'them' to the vet where they belong?"  I cannot attest the veracity of that statement, but unfortunately it would not surprise me.  And it's probably a good thing I wasn't there.  One thing that job changed in me was an increased willingness to jump into the middle of confrontational situations.  If I had been there, the so-called medical professional would have been a patient in their own ER and I would probably be online from the prison library.

And a Humongous (I spell-checked) Mental Health Mondays Hug to Michael Garcia from Houston, a waiter who refused to serve a man who was making extremely rude comments about a family whose little boy has Down's Syndrome.

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"RULES"

1.  Please put this button in your post:


2.  If you are a "hater", I'm sure there are places you can go to get what you want, but this link-up is not one of them.  If you will not play nice with others, you will go home before milk and cookies on the Porch.

3.  A social media follow or two and/or a subscription would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED, but not required.

4.  Posts should have some sort of relation to a mental health topic, but other than that it's wide open.

5.  As this link-up is BRAND new (TODAY!), spreading the word will bring you cosmic brownie points.  Well, maybe not, but I would really appreciate it!

4 comments:

  1. First of all, your writing is very engaging and holds my interest from the very first sentence! You are funny, too, in getting your point across, but not in a hurtful way. As I read, I thought of that waiter and I am glad you mentioned him. My heroes are the day-to-day people who see evil and have the courage to stand up against it, instead of stand there and wail that "someboooody should dooooo something about thaaaat!" ugh!

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  2. Thanks for the visit and comment, J. I appreciate your words too! I go all "Mama Bear" sometimes.

    Adorable bag on your blog today!

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  3. LuAnn, this is such a great idea for a meme! I'm not sure how often/if you read my blog, but talking about my own depression is something that I've done on several occasions over on Sanity's Overrated. So having a chance to talk about it, maybe get some of my own issues out in the open, once a week, is the best "therapy between therapy" that I could have.

    And thanks, also, for being an advocate. You totally rock!

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  4. Thanks so much, Amber. It is near and dear to my heart, to be sure. Not only is there my depression, but a son's sensory processing differences, and my work with adults who have MR/DD.

    Well, I'm a new follower and subscriber to your blog. So, while I have not visited lots in the past, I will be going back again...and again...:O)

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