France

I am such a copycat. Linea's picture on her blog  made me want to post one of MY trip. She is way more creative and ingenius than I am and I readily admit it. But none-the-less...here is a picture taken from the boat on the Canal du Midi somewhere around Carcassonne. I want to remember the joy of those carefree weeks less than a month ago! It was mostly sunny but the days of a little rain and clouds were so beautiful. Monet?

Mental Health Awareness Week: Can I Use the Word BREAST?

Mental Health Awareness week is October 3 - 9. Have you noticed that there are many, many people wearing pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month? Pink stays with us most of the year in one way or another because of the inspired breast cancer campaign. The breast cancer campaign has successfully led the way for many other campaigns including heart, diabetes, prostate cancer and others. Decreases in deaths from breast cancer are partially attributed to the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness, certainly with great contributions from the campaign. There are campaigns designed to do the same for mental illnesses. What are the similarities between the two?

First, let's make it okay to talk about mental illness. It is not an illness to be whispered about nor hidden between the generations and family members. Just like the word "breast" was once taboo in most environments, mental illness still has the power to make many people look away, turn away or at least feel very uncomfortable.

Early screening and knowing what to look for is the second critical aspect of these two campaigns. Just as we teach women to be aware of their own bodies and health, we need to teach all people to be aware of mental health conditions. And, we need to start very early. Parents and teachers should be knowledgeable partners in screening for emerging mental health issues and know exactly what to do and who to talk with if something is amiss. Our children should be taught about mental health just as we teach them about nutrition, general health and sex education.

Thirdly, just as with the breast cancer campaign, we should be talking about and teaching prevention. As with cancer, mental illness is not the "fault" of the person but there are things that build resiliency and help to prevent worsening of symptoms. These are quite similar to any prevention program: eat healthy meals, get the right amount of rest, exercise, have meaningful work or avocation activities, develop and maintain good friends, have a positive social life, and find some purpose either from faith or spirituality or commitment to something beyond one's self.

Finally, find the best treatment possible. Unfortunately this may be the most difficult to achieve. With treatment and support, mental illness is not the "sentence" it has been in the past. Recovery and stability is possible. The days when someone faced certain death from a diagnosis of breast cancer is no longer the case. The same is true with mental illnesses. We face huge challenges across the nation to assure treatment is provided for everyone with a mental illness. In Washington State the growing deficit has negatively impacted the most vulnerable. DSHS is slashing away at services for the mentally ill. What would you do if your mother was turned away from treatment programs if she had breast cancer?

We have a long way to go in treatment for the mentally ill, particularly those without strong family or advocate support. This fourth step is paramount to recovery. Mental illness affects the entire family and I know how priviledged my family is with the care that my daughter receives. Let us all turn to our family, neighbors, fellow employees and community and assure that mental health awareness and treatment is as readily available as a mammogram. To learn more check out NAMI's site. 

Hope for a Balanced Life

My daughter Linea and I have had many opportunities to meet some very amazing people all over the country. Whether they are famous or not so famous, wealthy or not so wealthy, brilliant or merely super-smart, they are all connected by the strong desire, commitment and action to bring positive change to the lives of people affected by mental illness. A few days ago we had a conference call with Emily Smith of the Karla Smith Foundation. We spent time with the Smith family in St. Louis for the Change a Mind, Change a Life event. We left with new best friends, bigger hearts and more drive than ever to change perceptions of mental illness, assure treatment and understanding and support research.


Emily said something to us at the end of our call that touched me deeply. She told us how much she appreciated what we are doing and what Linea’s sharing of her personal story has meant to her. She also said, “I know it isn’t always easy. I know this illness just doesn’t go away. I know there are times that are hard.” I held back the tears. Emily knows. She knows that it is a lifelong illness and that, although treatable, it is not “always easy”. The Smith family lost their beautiful daughter, sister and best friend. They lost Karla to bipolar disorder. She was diagnosed at the same age as Linea. She lost her battle. The Smith family has dedicated themselves to the support and care of families who have experienced the death of someone they love by suicide. I will not turn away from this family and I will not push away the thoughts of how close their story came to being ours. Suicide walks with those of us in the world of mental illnesses and we cannot look away. Tom, Fran, Kevin and Emily Smith are making a difference. The pain and tragedy of Karla’s death is always with them. I know from personal experience the pain of losing a family member to suicide. The grief lessens but it never leaves. But there is healing and beauty and power in knowing that their work is having positive impact on the world. As written on the Karla Smith Foundation website, “KSF believes there is hope for a balanced life. Even if there is an untreated person with mental illness in the family, even in the aftermath of suicide, there is hope. KSF helps discover and nurture that hope.” Our family joins the Smith family in this mission of hope. Thank you, Karla Smith Foundation. Take a look at their wonderful work at http://www.karlasmithfoundation.org/index.php

Consumer or Hero?

I just returned from the Washington State NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) conference where my youngest daughter and I were honored to present to a wonderful audience of people from all over the state. Our topic was entitled, "From Trauma to Empowerment". Our audience included professionals in mental health care, family members and "consumers". Isn't that a strange word for someone who is living with a mental health condition? A consumer is someone who uses services or buys products.  So, yes, many of the people at the NAMI conference are indeed consumers. They see psychiatrists, psychologists, medical doctors, therapists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, clinicians, dietitians, etc. etc. and more etc. They purchase medications, therapy, yoga, exercise sessions and much more. But in addition to "consumer"

I would call every person with a mental health condition a hero. Personally I have witnessed most of what my daughter has gone through with her diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder. As her mom, I, too, have been "brave" but nothing close to what is called for from those in the trenches of mental illnesses. I spoke with so many people at the conference for whom each and every day takes the utmost strength and courage to move through it and forward to the hope and possibility of recovery. These heroes include the R.N. who has struggled for the last three years to treat a severe and debilitating depression yet managed to get herself across the state to attend this important conference. It includes the man who has moved into stability, helping others with their own illnesses. He achieved stability, finally, after years of attacks from schizophrenia, forcing him into the fog of a broken mind and without the ability to live the life he has today. The heroes include the people who were not there, but represented by loving family members. These people struggle through each day in a treatment facility, very aware of the pain and anguish of illnesses that knock one off center and force a tenacity of spirit that most of us have never known.

When an illness strikes the body we muster our forces to manage it. We read and study and ask questions and find support groups. When mental illness strikes, the attack on the brain may not allow for the person to put together a "wellness plan". It may only be possible to make it through one day at a time. Bravery. Courage. And, once a person is approaching some stability, they must continue with this amazing strength to continue treatment, stay steady and fight each day to be well. Most of the people at the NAMI conference are not only in this fight for themselves but for others. Each day they live as heroes, in their own lives and for other individuals and society as a whole. If you aren't aware of the work that NAMI does consider joining, volunteering and/or donating. I cannot cheer loudly enough for the heroes in this battle!

A Conversation with Cinda and Linea, Brought to You by CABF

Linea and I were honored to participate in one of the podcasts on Flipswitch. Flipswitch is for teens and young adults and addresses living well with mood disorders. It is one of the many resources offered by our friends, the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF). You can check it out at the "Interview with Linea and Cinda".

Each week, the Flipswitch crew takes on a 'piece' of the mood disorder 'puzzle'. Researchers, celebrities, artists, moms, and teens share their perspectives in the interview portion of the show. Click here to subscibe to the podcast. I hope you enjoy this!

Tell me why? "...disarming all hostility"

Linea and I are reading our book again, preparing to work with our editor in September. As I read I often need to stop and walk around for a bit, drying my eyes, and centering myself back into this safe place in which I currently reside. Reading it pulls me back into all the fear and uncertainty yet I know there is a hopeful ending. I read a few passages that remind me again why we chose to share our most private lives, agonies and all. The following excerpt was written during Linea's first hospitalization. We are in the psychiatric ER in the largest trauma hospital in Seattle:

"We are finally called into the lock down unit of the psychiatric ER to stay with her. There is no information from anyone. There are no windows. The doors are locked. The nurses are harried. The three of us sit in a tiny room with a gurney and one chair. We don’t know what to expect or what we should expect so we wait. A nurse comes in briefly and answers our questions by telling us she has no information.

As we wait in the ER we listen to the nurses as they determine that two of the patients will need to spend the night on gurneys in the hallway because there are no mental health beds available in the city or anywhere nearby. These patients are homeless and there is no place for them to go. They have no mother or father or aunt or son or friend with them to campaign for their treatment or figure out the “ropes”. Alone, they face a dense maze of very dangerous ropes.

Even as sick as Linea is, she is aware of the inequity of the mental health system and her own strong sense of humanity pushes through her illness. Linea questions why she, an upper middle-class white girl with no obvious problems in comparison to these patients, should be the lucky one and get a bed. She questions whether she should have told her doctor how sick she was.

“I shouldn’t get the bed. Tell them that I can stay in the ER tonight. Let someone else have my bed. I can go home with you,” she cries. She becomes more upset as decisions are made on who will stay and who will go.

As we wait, we listen to a man at the end of the hallway sob and cry and weep off and on for hours until his sedation kicks in and finally all is eerily quiet from his room. At this point in our journey I am not yet used to grown men crying like children who are hurt and want their parents, believing their pain will never stop. It is only the beginning of my education in this kind of pain."

Linea was in the psychiatric unit of the hospital for much longer than a "night or two" as we initially had hoped. Over the next month she became an intimate member of a group of people whom most turn away from on the streets and elsewhere. I, too, begin to know these patients as people. People who deserve much more than they receive. People who deserve care and understanding, support and....love.

Would someone suffering from a heart attack in the U.S. not be able to find a bed or treatment? Would a mother be too embarrassed to bring her daughter clean clothes if she were in the hospital for a kidney stone rather than a depression?

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Happy Summer!

It is summer and I don't want to miss a single sunny day, warm night under the stars, fresh raspberries and peaches, salmon on the grill, or chocolate ice cream. I am still reeling (can you BELIEVE it!!??) when I remember that we just sold a book to a national publisher. I have finished summer quarter and am now writing grants and preparing for presentations this summer and early fall. But this darling boy reminds me to live in the moment. I don't want these precious warm months to slip away. It is time to replenish. Soon enough it will be rainy and dark at 6:00. Fall quarter will begin, students will return, and editing of the book will be on-going. Find a moment to enjoy these beloved summer months. Look into these eyes. Is this not the secret to happiness?