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Mental Health Notes

Mental Health Notes Wants To Know Why You ROCK!

by Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader on April 10th, 2008

As you may or may not should know, May is Mental Health Month. Last year, May was the first month Mental Health Notes was live (how appropriate, huh?), and in honor of Mental Health Month I posted information about mental health-related tips and resources on each of the 31 days.

This year, I’m still focusing on you - the mental health consumer - but taking a slightly different approach.

Throughout Mental Health Month (May 1, 2008 - May 31, 2008), I am running a series called “This Is Why I ROCK!” highlighting mental health consumers and the wonderfully awesome and kick ass things they are doing. (EDIT: The This Is Why I ROCK! series will now run for an indefinite amount of time, i.e. longer than May 31, 2008.)

Hmm… That may be a bit vague, so let me explain.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), “An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year” (The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America). That’s a pretty high percentage.

However, what isn’t a high percentage (or, at least, what I feel shouldn’t be a high percentage - I don’t have any actual statistics) is the percentage of people who just sit around and let mental illness kick their asses.

These are the people I want to feature in this series - the go-getters who continue living their lives despite the issues they sometimes face thanks to mental illness such as managing their symptoms, countless doctors appointments, expensive prescription medications to work into their budgets, dealing with family and friends who just don’t “get it,” and, of course, stigma.

In this series, I want to showcase the artists, the photographers, the writers, the business owners, the homemakers, the entrepreneurs, the athletes - EVERYONE who is making it happen and managing mental illness.

If this is you and you want me to showcase you and your awesome life or talent or occupation or whatever it is that makes you rock here at Mental Health Notes, simply:

  • Download and complete this form.
  • Email it to me at alicia AT writingspark DOT com with “This Is Why I ROCK!” in the subject line. Using this subject line is important; otherwise, I may mistake your email for spam.

My goal is to showcase one person on each of the 31 days in May; however, I will definitely try to showcase every single person who contacts me with the required information between today and midnight on April 30, 2008.

So, what are you waiting for? Gather up all the information and shoot me an email! Let’s tell the world why you ROCK this Mental Health Month!

Alicia

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POSTED IN: Current Affairs & News, Have Some Fun, Mental Health Advocacy, Rants & Raves, Resources, Sites of Interest, This Is Why I ROCK!, stigma

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