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WELCOME TO NAMI WYOMING !

We'd like to share some of the reasons people decide to become members of NAMI Wyoming. From NAMI Park County, we hear from D.G.:

"I joined NAMI for the support of the people that had similar problems. I found that if I listened, I didn't have to re-invent the wheel in solving my own issues and those of the kids. People do not exist in a vacuum and I had found no others willing to befriend me within the circles that I had. Mental health problems don't make us popular!.....My motive for continued membership is to remain connected so as to keep abreast of the changes in mental health and keep up with the people that I care about."

We'd like to invite others to tell us of their reasons for  being a part of NAMI.

Email us at: nami-wyo@qwest.net

Ashley Over field from NAMI Park County shared her story with the NAMI Park County February Newsletter and we are lucky she has agreed to share it with NAMI Wyoming.

"I believe pretty strongly in fate and possess a belief that things tend to  happen for a reason. October 25th, 2006 forced me to look even closer at my Dual Diagnosis. Charged with a DUI, I spent the night in jail disgusted with myself and even more, disappointed. Just a couple of weeks prior, I had attended a NAMI (Wyoming) Conference in Casper with other wonderful members. While there I spoke to Senator Colin Simpson, asking for his assistance in trying to get funding for WYSTAR, a program that I feel quite strongly about and at the time it was experiencing financial difficulties. Talk about feeling like a gigantic "bleep." That letter I had researched and prepared for Mr. Simpson still sits on my bookshelf. There is no way in Hades it was going to be faxed after that!"

"My point in speaking of this, is this: I am pulling different areas of my life together and into focus at the same time, more seriously now that ever. I applied for (so-to-speak) and was accepted into the Park County Drug Court program. The name itself is misleading. It is kind of exactly what I've needed. Never thought that I'd say that! For me right now, this program is kind of a "center" to my "recovery web." Freedom "center" with a gavel!"

"Allow me to briefly describe the Drug Court. Group therapy, three times a week; individual therapy with  Carra Wetzel once a week; Judicial Review twice a month, (where one goes before Judge Cranfill, Judge Webster or Judge Waters.) Call-ins are made twice a day to Deb Valance in which in my particular Phase is called, I go in for a screening. My phone line is also hooked up to a monitoring system, where they call and a computer takes my picture as I do a Breathalyzer. All the while, I attend to daily life, children, work, etc. I call Drug Court a "center" because it is. Outside of Drug Court I see Dr. Hopkins, Randy Washburn and Charlotte Deming of the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. I also take my medications "as directed" by Dr. Hopkins, not Dr. Ashley."

"Practising balance is a key at this particular moment in my life. I find myself working more with the grain than against it. It's not easy right now to hold my head up high and look others in the eye. I'm working on it. Irony never runs low in my life. Mr. Simpson was there my very first day of Drug Court, attending a graduation. I mentally bashed my head in as I ducked past him. I don't want to have to do that anymore."

Thank you, Ashley, for letting us publish this. We wish you the very best. 

We are glad you have visited our website and we hope to be useful to you.

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