Spreading the word and breaking the stigma

I told you last week about my speech in Toastmasters about mental illness. Today, I arrived at the meeting early. One of the members told me she really enjoyed the speech and realized that she had been suffering from depression in the winter for many years. SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder

We talked for a while and I gave her several suggestions on how to combat the seasonal depression. She thanked me again about the information.

I felt very good about having reached someone with information they needed. Later someone said I was very passionate, almost angry. I said I was only angry about the stigma towards mental illness. Yes I am very passionate about the topic.

It appears that mental health and mental illness is my main concentration on many days. Recovery is the name of the game. What needs to be done to work towards recovery? What needs to be done to remain in recovery?

Mental health is my main emphasis in my writing in whatever I write about. It always comes back to that. All the other things that I do work in tangent to maintain healthy mental health – diet, exercise, education.

As a man thinks so he goes. If his thinking is all muddled from whatever cause, then he can not accomplish anything. He ends up stagnate. In mental illness, we work on recovery so the thinking can also clear. Life can go on. Dreams and aspirations can be accomplished.

It is all possible one day at a time…in recovery.