Don't get me wrong. People with a chemical imbalance need chemicals to put them back in neutral. But, if you've been sick for any length of time, you have to learn to steer again when you put it in drive. I worked most of my life (and I've been ill for that portion) on myself; trying to get back. When I finally got the right mix of medication, this still wasn't good enough. I still had to work on myself.
This is what my blog and my memoir are about; how much work it takes to move a person with a serious mental illness back into society as a productive member. This is my goal for myself. Although, I enjoy a comfortable degree of wellness right now, I still have a length of road to discover to get me to totally productive. I still pray for this day.
But, look how good God is. When I had given up on ever getting the right meds and being condemned to a walking death in hell with voices and other hallucinations, He brought me back. It took one year for the medication to totally take effect. For two years I was on a high. No voices! Then, I realized that the work I had done heretofore was not sufficient.
So, I am here to tell you. If you are ill and aspire to reality and complete productivity. The pill they give you only relieves the symptoms. You have to do the work to move yourself back into society. (You are isolated whether you realize it or not.) The pills are not a panacea.
And, if you don't have an illness and you stigmatize or don't quite fully understand, this is for you too. I want you to understand the symptoms as best as I can explain them. I want you to understand the long walk, the long hard walk, we have to take just to be in the game again,not necessarily to win in your definition.
But, to my brothers and sisters who have a mental illness, we are winners when we get up every morning and shower and dress and try. Try has to become win. It's the only way we're going to make it.
"....but with God, all things are possible."
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