I am a warrior

      As a woman with a mental illness, I have struggled and and gone through some hardships but I am getting through it with the help of my friends, family and the group home I live in. I am blessed to be able to reach out when I need it, at one point I had difficulty with self advocacy but now I'm able to speak up on my own. I have a great parents who love me through it all, and good friends who stuck by me, and never left my side. I have conquered so many fears living with a mental illness, I have been able to beat my public speaking fear by speaking about my illness at the State House in Boston Massachusetts.
   It's not easy to speak in front of legislators, but I was able to see the courage I had inside of me and keep mental health support in tact. It is so vital for those like me who need services. Clubhouses are so important to me and my friends, I attend the Point After club in Lawrence Massachusetts and it has changed my life forever. The first club house to introduce standards is the Fountain House in New York City. The clubhouse has a work ordered day which is important for those who want to work in the real world.
      My life has been better with the help of the mental health services, as a whole there will always be stigma attached, because there are still people who will never understand mental illness. The media portrays us in a negative light, at least in my opinion. I wish we could be seen more positively, but if we don't continue to speak our truth we'll always be seen as scary. I wish that wasn't the case. There are so many wonderful people who understand though and continue to advocate for me and I know that they'll continue to use their voice to help those in the community who need the support the most.
     I am so lucky to be able to use my coping skills to know when I am struggling, not everybody has that ability, or sometimes they are to scared to make sense of what's going on, or even worse they don't have the supports in place to notice anything is even wrong with them. When I was first diagnosed, I blamed myself, I feared that I'd lose friends. But I gained new friends who loved me for me, they didn't see the mental illness. They saw me, and didn't judge.
     The great fortune is that I have continued to make friends. I've been more outgoing, I can be very shy at first, but once you get to know me, I am very talkative. It's easy for me to be a shell of myself, I was for the first few months when I first attended the club. But I was able to get out of that and I learned to be a much more outgoing personality. I hope that whomever reads this, gets help if they are struggling, maybe talk to a friend or a doctor. It'll be hard at first but, reaching out will help you feel better in the long run.
     Thanks for reading and I hope to continue to update the blog as needed.