NAMI Blog

"It took me many years to rid myself of the shame that followed me nearly all my life. The important thing is that you just begin to heal your shame, so it doesn’t dictate your life."

"No one, including family and close friends, has ever asked me about the first time I heard a voice. I think it’s a tough topic to talk about. Hearing voices isn’t considered normal. Regardless, I remember."

"After three decades of battling my brain, I thought it was time for me to do something to help people understand. That’s why I decided last year to use my annual PlanksGiving event to support mental health advocacy and NAMI."

"In my growing depression, I had lost the ability to enjoy anything, but that morning, I enjoyed my breakfast. Such a little thing, an institutional breakfast on a tray, but it was the first good thing I had had in a long time."

"I was inside the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women to co-lead a three-day NAMI Peer-to-Peer training. Knowing that I could leave didn’t help; I still felt trapped when I heard all those doors lock behind me."

"It's mind-boggling just how far behind the African-American culture is when it comes to mental health and suicide. But African-Americans need to know: A mental health condition is no different than a physical one."

It's widely accepted that if you have a health problem, you would see a medical professional who specializes in that problem’s proper treatment. But if you're faced with a mental health problem, is your first instinct to see a mental health professional? Society has taught many of us to answer no.

"We know serious mental illness and substance use disorders often co-occur. And I believe there is room for researching the medical potential of marijuana’s components. But pretending that marijuana is a harmless substance is not the way to help our loved ones."

Fighting depression is difficult. Not only do you have to fight the illness, but you also fight the stigma attached to it. For men, the fear of looking weak or unmanly adds to this strain.

Beyond occasional reference to Types I and II, bipolar disorder is usually viewed as one condition. Ignoring the spectrum breeds confusion and prevents the public from better understanding the complexity of this illness.