The irony of providing crappy care to those living with mental illness is that it only makes things worse, meaning that they'll probably need even more care in the future (similar to the way prisons tend to turn small time criminals into hardcore criminals, but that's a different issue)...

So true! It's bad enough that many of us are treatment resistant. But when we finally make the choice of therapy and/or meds, it would help a lot if there were far less negative experiences in the available care.

America needs to get a Mental Health Treaty, like the one in Europe . (World Health Organization, 2005, I believe, or 2002!)

Thank you for bringing up the need for change in mental health care and also for reminding me of NAMI - I'll look into this survey. ...Also, Dano, I've given you an award as a small token of appreciation for all you have so fearlessly shared on this blog. You can check it out in my last post.

I was diagnosed with bipolar manic depression, but I believe I was misdiagnosed, and merely neurotic. My patterns of up and down stem from many things. Early childhood development, chemically altered states, ancestry, life choices, and bad food.

Doctors have prescribed various types of medication to me over the years. I stopped taking them back in 1999. Even though I become depressed and isolated at times; I would rather shut the world out than lose my ability to create and direct the wholeness of my off-beat lifestyle.

Thank you for bringing up healthcare awareness, I will promote this survey on my blog. Recently, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and I am in the recovery phase. In fact, I created a blog dedicated to schizophrenia if you want to check it out.

http://overcomingschizophrenia.blogspot.com

In addition, the survey was easy to complete.

Ashley

Dano,

That's awesome about the award for your blog, its so wonderful to know that people you like think you like like you back!Its Mary J, you asked me to do the NAMI survey but I can't find it on their site? Am I blind?

rt~ I completely understand the worry about loss of creativity through medicine. I went off lithium and countless others, before I became so sick that there was just no choice.

I believe that my Manic-Depression spiraled out of control, as any unmanaged illness will, due to lack of care.

I applaud that you are able to face your life without meds, but I believe that therapy is a great tool in helping you better cope with the yawning abyss of depression.

My best wishes, D

Ashley~ I've been away from my computer for about a week, so I'm a little behind. I'll pop over to your blog, but will take a longer read as time permits.

I have a couple of friends with the same diagnoses as you. It's possibly the least understood of all mental health issues. Along with the usual stigma, one has to face fear from an ignorant public.

Congratulations on finding the strength within to open the eyes of others!

Mary~ If you go to the NAMI website, it's in the middle, just under their banner/header. But just in case you're still missing it, I'm a gonna give you an extremely long link for you to click.

And let me know how it goes, 'cause we have until the end of September to figure this out! Take care, D

Here's the link:

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=national_surveys&Template=/customsource/telesage_survey.cfm&lstid=933

Long as the nails of an Emporer of China!