NAMI Glendale Blogspot

We are moving our blog

2008-01-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

we are moving from Blogger to a blog directly on our NAMI Glendale website. here is the url
www.namiglendale.org/blogengine.net check it out!

We have a Family to Family class starting in February 2008; interested? Visit our website for the details and contact information. www.namiglendale.org click on the Family to Family link.

Sights and Shots of NAMI Walks LA 2007

2007-10-31T23:15:00.000-07:00

Who's In Control Anyway?

2007-07-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Letty & I just returned from Kelowna (or Kelownafornia as we now refer to it) in beautiful British Columbia.

Letty was there on business, she works with the rescue mission in the downtown area. Here is there web site: http://www.kelownagospelmission.ca/ help them if you can it would be appreciated.

I arrived Thursday around 5:30 PM to this wonderful valley surrounded by mountains and a huge 90 mile long lake running between the Eastside and Westside of the valley.

This is largely a resort area, people from all over the world either own a home or timeshare or condo and come to enjoy this mild climate and beautiful region in eastern British Columbia.

This week end was a celebration of Canada's 140th. birthday and Letty & I attended some great events a citizenship ceremony where 95 people of varying nationalities became Canadian citizens, a family and friends bar-b-que and were all prepared for the fireworks celebration, but that for technical reasons did not happen.

All in all it was a great weekend. On Monday Letty & I went on a cruise on Lake Okanagen. As we were enjoying the scenery and beauty we struck up a conversation with a couple from Vancouver on hiloday. They had actually seen Letty the day before when we were having lunch and we just started to share some regular informaton about each other. Eventually the conversation got around to why Letty was there in the first place. When she shared the couple were touched by the whole idea of helping homeless people. Then the wife shared she has a niece with schizophrenia and a close friend with bi-polar disorder. The friend is med compliant and the niece is not and struggles. I saw this as an opportunity to share about NAMI and I gave her a biz. card and wrote the book "I Am Not Sick and Don't Need Help" by Amador for her, told her to read this and to give it to her brother so trhe family can better understand what her niece is dealing with.

At this point the boat docked we said our goodbyes and they were very thankful.

When we got off the boat I turned to Letty and said "You know this morning I was thinking that we had not discussed our story with anyone this whole weekend. I wondered if that was a good thing or not." And then in the middle of a lake, more than 1500 miles from home two couples can meet and share how mental illness has had an effect on their lives.

I have been it too many of these situations to know that we are all given the opportunity to share our journey and share a message of hopefullness to others.

Two Months Too Long

2006-11-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

It has been two months since my last post and that is too long! Someone should have embarrassed me and reminded me; no I'll take full blame for not making any updates.

The NAMI Walk appears to have done a good job of getting the word out and the LA Affiliates raised over $309, 000 (Hip Hip Hooray for us).

Recently the LA Times ran an article on stigma in television programming did you see it? It was in the November 13 Health Section front page and was a good article, although it did not mention Stella and her great work it did mention NAMI's fight for dignity for better portrayals of mentally ill people in TV.

What do you think about how accurately TV depicts those with mental illness? How about the fact that so many are criminals or not in recovery? What about Monk? Is this an accurate view of OCD? Recently Jane Curtain had a show and she was a character suffering from depression and the show did poorly, did it hit home or miss entirely?

Did you see the story about how Baltimore is fighting homlessness with parking meters? They are refitting old parking meters for cash donations to relieve poverty in their town. Is this a good idea? How are other communities fighting this issue? Are they winnning or losing? Is money enough to win the battle or are social programs needed or can they be improved? Job training, does it work?

Give us your comments.

NAMI WALKS LA

2006-09-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

October 7, 2006, Santa Monica Third Street Promenade will be the date and site of this years NAMI WALKS Los Angeles at 9:30 AM.

When I heard that the walk would be at a new location I was overjoyed at where and when this years event would take place. The Third Street Promanade in Santa Monica is one of the greater Los Angeles Counties best spots for exposure to a cause as this one. On any Saturday this place is packed with people shopping, dining and theater visitors. This will be a great day for NAMI.

If you are reading this and have not joined as either a walker or team captain please do so. The money raised by this annual event helps educate, advocate and battle stigma on behalf of those who cannot always fight on their own.

The monies help raise the level of awareness to the plight of the chronically mentally ill. It's used to help change laws and policies that affect our loved ones at the federal, state and local levels. It funds the needed advertising to elevate awareness to our society at large. It allows for many important programs, "Family-to-Family", "Peer-to-Peer", "In Their Own Voice" and many others to be developed and improved upon.

If we really want to effect change on behalf of those who suffer with mental illness and advocate with the legislators for changes events like NAMI WALKS LA is where your voice can be heard.

Join us,

LA Times - Mental Health Stories this week

2006-09-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

In the past week their have been two articles in the LA Times regarding mental health that are worth taking note of.
On Tuesday September 5 the sad story of Christina Eilman appeared. This story related the difficulties a young woman had after being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder last year, she was not med compliant had a manic episode that led to a series of very unfortunate circumstances and finally with her being tragically injured and in terrible pain. The story can be viewed through this link http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-plummet5sep05,1,6406843.story

My reason for starting a discussion on this story is because first it is a true story based on some pretty damaging facts of how ill-equipped the police are in handling mentally ill individuals, and yet they are having to deal with the mentally ill every day. Second, we can see how Illinois is doing how about California? What role do we have in helping our loved ones in being med-compliant?

It seems we are failing on every level as a society when it comes to helping the helpless individuals who are diagnosed, released on the own, and no or little follow up takes place. This leads me to the second story in the Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons7sep07,1,6481263.story this story in Thursday’s paper shares the results of a study of 25, 000 prisoners in our nation of which ½ have a mental illness. We have moved from a society that had insane asylums once considered to be so disgusting that we did away with them and went to state run mental hospitals that were closed in the late 1960’s back to a state run insane asylum called the jail system. We are no further along in helping the mentally ill than ever. We are losing the battle and retrenching each day toward a broken system.

I do not mean to sound angry or depressed about this, but the fact is we as a society in a modern enlightened age with our scientific, sociological, wisdom and pioneering spirit cannot give a account as to why we are so poor at helping the mentally ill.

I look forward to your comments and ideas.

Great Evening!

2006-08-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

If you joined us at the Hancocks you know that the evening was just grand! We had a wonderful time just eating and drinking on the deck with some wonderful people.

If you walked around you heard not only the buzz from the yellow jackets but the great bits of conversation. "How is this person doing?", "How are you doing?", "Have you heard from?".

To me it represents the caring group of people we have come to know over the past 6 years or so. The concern in genuine, and that is really great.

If you missed us please keep in mind that we get together every Tuesday at Arden House. That we do care about you and your situation. We do not have all the answers and often do not even ask the right questions, but you are not alone.

w.

Addiction Sadness

2006-07-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Alcoholism is a disease this is a known fact. But a disease of the brain, the body or the spirit of someone? Addiction in any form can be horrible for the person suffering and needing help, for the friends and family enduring the effects, consequences and grief of this disease. My first roommate out of high school, Randy, passed from this life after many long years of an addiction to alcohol. He was astranged from his family and friends the last 15 years of his life. He stayed with my family for about a month about 15 years ago and was trying to get sober. When he left he had a job and a place to live in Van Nuys, we helped move him in. The last we heard he was going to go to Korea to teach English as a second language, we never know if he did or not we lost touch. Just two weeks ago we got a call from him ex-wife that he was living in a hotel on skid row in LA and the management checked in on him and found him in such distress the paramedics were called he was taken to USC and passed away the next day.
Randy taught me never to be in denial about someone else's addiction. I always tried to help him to live a sober life and I spoke up to his family about his problem. But people either denied his problem or enabled his problem. Randy's passing is not the best end to any addiction story but it is the end to so many like him.

In the middle of all of this sits Dustin. Last week his mom called him just to touch base, he wanted only money, the rest of his SSI, $50.00, he came by and got it when we were not at home. Last night Letty called his place of residence and they said they had not seen him for a week. We checked the hospital, and finally on line to discover he had been arrested three times in the space of two weeks. He is in jail now. Without knowing the circumstances of why he was arrested let's just say that now we know he is "safe", but what he's looking at for a consequence we do not know.

So what is it with addiction as a disease? Is it physical? Is it emotional? Is it spiritual? A combination of these? In Randy's case it was all three, he came in this world from alcoholics, had a propensity for wanting to drink and developed a physical and emotional need for drink. He let drink become his everything forsaking his loved ones, this is the spritual part I refer too. When the addiction becomes your comfort and higher power.

Maybe you think differently, please post your comments and share your thoughts.

wayne

Here's How to Blog!

2006-06-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Blog's are journals on the Internet. It is short for Web Log (weBLOG) get it! Now it has come to my attention that some readers want to participate in this activity and here is how.
At the bottom of each of my entries there is an underlined link that say's 'comment.' If you click on this link you will be walked through a sign-up process and then you can start making comment's to exsisting posts (entries). If you would like to make your own post (entry) I will have to add that privilege to you and add you as a member of this blog with posting privileges. If you have any questions please contact me and I will help you, I promise!

Regards,

Wayne

Moving toward advocacy

2006-05-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Taking it Personal

2006-05-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

So many wonderful friends and family members know that our family lives with mental illness. Dustin lives with it each and every day with no relief, his illness and his self-medication choices put him in a state of hopelessness.
We have gone through so many crisis, hospitalizations, living changes, financial stresses, emotional strains as a family that when someone say's "So how's it going, how is Dustin?" that I have to internalize what I am going to say, how I am going to say it and not sound like the world is crashing in on top of our whole family. That is not to say that we do not appreciate that people are concerned and really want to know because they love our family, it is just that it is really hard to be verbal about such a static situation. "Somedays are better than others.", "We live each day as it comes.", "Horrible", "Somewhat stable.", "I really do not know, we have not seen or heard from him.", "Good, he is really trying.", "He's in hospital.", "He's on the street.", "He's using.", "Pray for his safety." These are some of my responses and they run the gamut.
It's is not that we do not want to talk about what we go through, but sometimes I feel we share too much or too little. We have hope in our lives that we try to live out each day. A hope that our son will want to recover, a hope that research will find better medicines for bipolar illness, a hope that he will turn from street drugs and surrender.
So if you know us and ask us "How is Dustin doing?", expect any number of responses for that moment, but it is just for that moment.

READ THIS!

2006-05-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey pay attention! Just kidding. We're glad you are here but just a bit of information about this site. When you are on this page and click on "View Next Blog" up in the upper right hand corner of the page you are leaving the NAMI Blogspot for another Blog and it may have content that could be offensive. Please be aware that if you only want to visit the NAMI Glendale Blog then stay on this page.

Have you shared with others about this blog? Have you commented on the posted journals? Join us!!

Challenges

2006-05-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

NAMI Glendale has some challenges ahead. What do you think about some of the issues we face. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Growing and still meeting needs. As our membership grows and as more people come to care and share how do we meet all of the needs expressed at meetings? Can we meet them?

Member Participation. How do we encourage more participation at the membership level. Presently the "core" group does so much of the work but how do we distribute some of the tasks among more members?

Elevate our identity. What steps should we take to make professional mental health providers, the famlilies who do not know about us and the community at large to become more aware of NAMI.

What other ideas or isssues do you want to share. This is the place, where we can have some exchange of ideas and work to improve NAMI Glendale.

Coping

2006-05-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

How do you cope? Do you have a special skill that you learned or discovered? Just what is coping? It occured to me that how we cope with the stess of living with mental illness may be of benefit to others. Here are some ideas I have had about this method of dealing with stress.

Physical Exercise -- I try to exert myself at least 3-4 times a week. When I walk I take music along for the ride to distract my thoughts.
Withdrawl -- This was one I learned from my upbringing; do not deal with it withdraw and let it simmer down.
Pillow Yelling -- Never worked for me but for some it really is a release.
Talk it Out -- Try to sit with someone and talk through what your stressed about, I am not good at doing this I need to cool off before I can talk.
Chores -- This one though not my favorite is a great distraction for me, do yard work, laundry. shopping for groceries some type of home related work.
Run Away -- Not a skill as I see it.

How do you cope? Give us some ideas.....

Getting Started

2006-05-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the NAMI Glendale Blogspot. This space is for members to post and journal their thoughts and ideas. For visitors, NAMI Glendale is a support group for family members and friends of individuals who suffer from persistant mental illness, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. We provide weekly care and share meetings, advocate for those who suffer from disorders, fight stigma and provide relevant resources and tools to help better understand what our loved ones and we endure every day.