I am a recipient of mental health services and have been for most of my adult life. I have a diagnosis of schizo-affective disorder and have been able to overcome the effects of this disability. I have been working full time for over four years and am happily married for almost two years.
My story began in my early twenties when my life went to pieces due to symptoms that I didn't understand. I gradually lost control of my life, loosing my job and eventually my first wife and children. These symptoms led to my diagnosis and an outlook on life that was pretty grim, based on the doctors' predictions and what I had seen in the mental health system. After numerous medication trials and years of psychotherapy, the outlook had changed, but not according to the doctor. I then returned to college, and received an associates degree in business administration, graduating with honors, all against the recommendations of my therapist and doctor.
During this time, I became involved in the local drop-in center that was just being developed and was asked to be a paid staff member of the center. This was a turning point in my life, one for the better. At this point I became involved with a variety of consumer organizations throughout New York State. This allowed me to see that recovery is possible, even for someone with a diagnosis such as mine. Also at this time, I became interested in advocacy and advocating for mental health issues and those with them. I was also asked to become a paid advocate, an Ombudsman, for the local Mental Health Association in Fulton and Montgomery counties. This allowed me even more access to the consumer groups, my peers, throughout the state, further solidifying my resolve to prove the doctors and therapist wrong and prove to myself that I was worth something. I found in these groups the strength through self-help to keep on going in spite of the adversities that having such a diagnosis brings. Not only did I find strength, but also compassion for others in similar circumstances and the desire to help fix the wrong being committed against my peers.
That is when the ombudsman "job" became more than that. It became a life's mission. With the training in college, my personal experiences, and seeing the experiences of my peers, along with the training that I received from advocacy groups, I found myself working full time serving my peers as others had helped me - no longer on entitlements or social welfare, but caring for my own needs just as other "normal people" do. The Mental Health Association in Fulton & Montgomery Counties was a great aid in assisting me to this point and found that they were truly serving their mission to help individuals diagnosed with mental illness.
I now work for the Mental Health Association in New York State as Director of Trauma and Parenting Initiatives. As a survivor of childhood trauma, and a parent with a psychiatric disability, I have found myself in a position again to help my peers, now on a statewide level. Encouraging the development of services and advocating for proper care for individuals such as myself. Directing attention to the needs of parents with psychiatric disabilities and those who have been sexually victimized and have a psychiatric disability, male or female, mothers or fathers. Continuing on the state level the work that I feel so strongly about, and for the individuals that I have so much in common with.
There is still much to be done to overcome the stigma that once prevented me from seeking out the help that I so desperately needed. This powerful black cloud that hangs over all of us that threatens to keep us, our families, and our friends entrapped in the grip of blinding stigma around psychiatric needs and services. With everyone's voices lifted up to cry out the message: we don't have to be held hostage to the power of the stigma, and recovery is possible. We won't have to be afraid or ashamed to say "I have a mental illness and this is what 'I' need." Until that time, I am proud to be one of the many voices en mass with my peers and others telling this message to the public, government, and professionals.