Moving toward advocacy

The other day I was writing a new post and we lost power in the house, (do not ask why I will get in trouble) and did not go back to what I was writing. So now I will.

When Letty & I found NAMI we found support and education and tools and a whole lot of new friends that share so much in common. At that time support was what we needed, we wanted to come and talk and listen and leave and comeback. We did that for quite some time, finally someone asked if we would help with something and we said "we would." Then we were asked if we would help in the fundraising for the Walk and we said "of course" and we did.

We have grown to realize the importance of getting support and giving support. But more importantly we are advocates. We advocate for our son with his caregivers. We advocate for NAMI with friends that need what NAMI offers. We advocate for mental health issues at work, play, church and wherever we can.

People need support and comfort and information. But as our personal situations becomes more stable and less of a crisis I see a pattern of not moving towards advocacy but away from the support. I find that alarming and wonder why that is.

I have some ideas about that. Our lives are full. We only have so much time and cannot add another meeting, committee or project to our already busy life. We do not want to give back. We come for the benefit of the support and comfort but when we are asked to become a supporter or comforter we head for the hills. We are only in it for the crisis. So many of us fall into becoming needy and we really do not see how we can use our experinces in crisis to be of help to others. We do not want to get our feet wet, just the toes. We want to be sponges and not be drained of our energy, time and resources.

Well here is the reality, if we really want change in the way our loved ones receive services and are treated then we need to be advocates.
If we really want newer medicines that have fewer sideffects than we need to be advocates.
If we want the laws changed that affect mentally ill individuals and how they are treated by the criminal system and the mental health system then we need to be advocates.
To accomplish great things you must do the little things.

I'll get off my soap box and let you comment.