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Taken from a correspondence from Iron Mountain VA |
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The stigma associated with mental illness is a big barrier to recovery. If we want to be a truly healthy society, we need to break down the stigma and treat mental illness like any other health care condition. It starts with you.
-Unknown
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Quote from social psychologist Erich Fromm |
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Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies. . . .
- Erich Fromm
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Quote from Helen Keller |
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"Happiness does not come from self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
- Helen Keller
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tammy Venne |
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"After the game, the King and the Pawn go in the same box."
- Tammy Venne, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tammy Venne |
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"If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else!"
- Tammy Venne, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tammy Venne |
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"Life is but a dream, while being awake."
- Tammy Venne, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tammy Venne |
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"Do it afraid!"
-Tammy Venne, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Fred Corson |
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"The best things in life must come by efforts from within, not by gifts from the outside."
- Fred Corson, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tammy Venne |
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"When life rains on your parade, 'Bust out the Slip-n-Slide.'"
- Tammy Venne, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from writer, Napoleon Hill |
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"Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do."
- Napoleon Hill
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Quote from Michigan Peer, LaTia Chappell |
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"In the end it's not the number of years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"
- LaTia Chappell, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, LaTia Chappell |
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"If you have not forgiven yourself for something, how can you forgive others?"
- LaTia Chappell, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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From Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Botsford) |
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"No right is held more sacred, or is more cafefully guarded, by the common law, than the right of every individual to the posiession and control of his (/her) own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestioned authority of law."
- United States Supreme Court
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From the song, The Rose |
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Some say love, it is the river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is the razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower and you
it’s only seed.
It’s the heart that fears the breaking,
that never learns the dance.
It’s the dream afraid of waking,
that never takes the chance.
It’s the one that won’t be taken,
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying,
that never learns to live.
When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long,
when you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong.
Just remember in the winter far below the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
in the spring becomes the rose.
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The Dream of Recovery |
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I have a dream that one day boys and girls, men and women will be able to get medical attention for their mental illness whether they are rich or poor.
Stigma will exist no more!
Those who need medication will have it readily available to them.
No more lack of medications or manic reactions.
The view of the future will be positive and true.
Men and women who are assisted by the few.
The few who help many to stay the course, the course of Recovery
Via the tested journey - A journey on the Path of Recovery
- Patricia Jefferson, Certified Peer Support Specialist, New Center Community Mental Health Services
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Life is Simple ... It is Us Humans Who Make It Hard |
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Taken from the AuSable Valley Community Mental Health Consumer Newsletter
This is some good advice!
If a dog was the teacher, you would learn stuff like: when loved ones come home always run to greet them; never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride; allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy; when it’s in your best interest, practice obedience; let others know when they’ve invaded your territory. Take naps, stretch before rising; run, romp, and play daily; thrive on attention and let people touch you; avoid biting when a simple growl will do; on warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass; on hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree; when you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout… run right back and make friends; delight in the simple joy of a long walk; eat with gusto and enthusiasm and stop when you’ve had enough; be loyal; never pretend to be something you’re not; if what you want lies buried, dig until you find it; when someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle gently.
- Lisa K.
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tom Burden |
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"Today’s Knowledge and Understanding is part of our Past.
Don’t let the Past keep Becoming your Future ...
Take the Knowledge and Understanding of the Past and make it a better Future!!!
Life is about Change."
- Tom Burden, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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From The STOMP Newsletter, January 2010 |
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"Stigma is both external and internal. I have experienced both, but it’s the internal garbage that I am always wrestling with. Mental health disorders are medical conditions; brain disorders; chemical imbalances. They are not anyone’s fault ...."
- Emily Smith
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tom Burden |
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"When we stay in our comfort zone it surrounds us with our past. When we expand our comfort zone we let in glimpses of what our future can be!"
- Tom Burden, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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From Hopeworks Community blog January 20, 2010 |
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"Forgiveness allows you to plant the seeds for future hope. For without forgiveness everything is simply a rerun of what has already happened. Everyday is 'Groundhog Day.'”
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Quote from Henry David Thoreau |
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"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
- Henry David Thoreau
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Quote from speech made at the December 9, 2009 Peer Graduation Ceremony in Lansing, Michigan |
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The Many Years of Silence
"Good afternoon everyone. It is with great joy and admiration that I humbly stand before you to help launch the newest antidote of Certified Peer Support Specialists to aid the mental health system, which is currently ill and malnourished. We the Certified Peer Support Specialists, with the help of so many, from our Honorable Governor, Jennifer Granholm, and many other advocates throughout the state and country, have helped us turn the poison of our lives into a healing antidote.
Before I became a Certified Peer Support Specialist my life was speckled with psychotic episodes, incarcerations and frustrations. After becoming a Certified Peer Support Specialist I became a light that shines into the dark world of stigma, a light that freely shines on humanity. Rather than being an economic strain to the public mental health system, I and so many other Certified Peer Suppor\t Specialists are rays of hope and symbols of a new and dynamic frontier, with Michigan in the leading role.
My life story after becoming a Certified Peer Support Specialist is one of hundreds. I'm an original member in Wayne County helping to form the mental health courts. I worked with lawyers, judges and a host of others helping people with mental health issues and non-violent charges to avoid lengthy incarcerations and address their mental health needs. I've worked assisting homeless persons with severe and persistent mental illness to obtain mental health services and affordable housing in the communities of their choice. I've provided transitional housing to returning citizens with mental health and substance abuse histories.
Because of the intensive and well-structured training I received from the State of Michigan to become a Certified Peer Support Specialist, and the unity of all those involved, along with a blanket of Certified Peer Support Specialist friends and colleagues, we are warmly covering those in need of mental health services throughout the State of Michigan.
I currently work at The Guidance Center, a mental heatlh agency downriver, where I and other Certified Peer Support Specialists facilitate classes, helping people with severe and persistent mental illness and dual diagnoses become productive and active in their chosen fields and in higher education. The Guidance Center also provides myself and other Certified Peer Support Specialists the opportunity to work in Supported Employment and a new, innovative community gardening project. I am active in IMAGINe (I May Achieve Greater Indepence Now!), a consumer-run committee. I'm a member of CFAC (Consumer Family Advocate Council), also a consumer-run committee. I work closely with the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency. I am a member of the Community Planning Council and Co-Chair of the Access Committee. I work in the field of substance abuse prevention and treatment. I work closely with MICAH (Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness), an organization to prevent homelessness. I currently hold certifications in substance abuse treatment and social work. I have earned a Masters and an Honorary Doctorate. I also work as a Licensed Ordained Minister. I do motivational speaking and present at numerous ant-stigma and mental health-related events.
I can never fully repay those who are responsible for providing the Certified Peer Support Specialist trainings. I am truly grateful and at your disposal in whatever I may do to continue this great cause. Thank you for the advocacy, the training and this event.
To my fellow Certified Peer Support Specialists,
We are giants who stand on the hills of unfulfilled dreams, and the tears on the slippery slopes of despair of the ones who went before. Let us do well!
God bless you all and God bless America. Thank you."
- Richard Mott, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote taken from the SAMHSA Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health |
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"There's a collective hunger to have mental ilnesses brought out of the proverbial closet, to exchange information and share stories. There is also a fear of it .... People, just like me, craved to be heard, hungered to see themselves reflected accurately among their peers and their communties."
- Victoria Maxwell
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From Hopeworks Community blog |
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"Enduring what you can't control has a lot to do with finding a life you can control."
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On Humility from Hopeworks Community blog |
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"Humble people don't think less of themselves. They think less of thinking of themselves. They don't think the outside world is a mirror and reality a reflection of them. Their abiding concern is not what they get from the world, but what they give to the world."
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tom Burden |
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“Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.”
- Tom Burden, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Quote from Michigan Peer, Tom Burden |
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"Hope is a tiny flickering flame that people just love to blow out onus.
Until we grow in our recovery and learn to cuff the flame with our hands.
Then, we stop the hope stealers from taking away our dreams and goals in life!!!”
- Tom Burden, Certified Peer Support Specialist
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Taken from the book Self-Help by Samuel Smiles |
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"He who never made a mistake never made a discovery."
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Taken from a speech delivered September 8, 2009 |
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"You can't let your failures define you. Let them teach you."
-United States President, Barak Obama
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Repeated at a recent anti-stigma meeting in Michigan |
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"Stigma is prejudice wrapped in shame, born of our ignorance and fed by our fear."
-Barbara Lawton, Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
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Quoted from Regina Brett |
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To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the Second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. BURN THE CANDLES, USE THE NICE SHEETS, USE THE GOOD CHINA,
WEAR THE FANCY LINGERIE. DON'T SAVE IT FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION. TODAY IS SPECIAL. YOU'RE SPECIAL.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, ‘In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything You did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, get dressed up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
- Regina Brett (90 years old) Of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
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Quoted from Jacqueline Castine, BA |
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Stomping out Stigma is a worthy exercise for all of us who have been victims of discrimination because of our mental health issues. We know that there is a great need for education and enlightenment in our society to end the misinformation and myths surrounding brain disorders.
Most of us who suffer from mental illness know all too well that we face another obstacle in our journey towards acceptance and serenity. And that is self-acceptance, the freedom from self-criticism which seems to be a ‘ not so subtle’ sidekick to depression. These nagging thought patterns tell us we are worthless, there is nothing to live for, that we have not accomplished anything in our lives, that no one cares about us. We know that this negative thinking is false and destructive when we are emotionally stable. But when the dragon called depression slithers from the back porch into the living room of our feelings we forget what we know intellectually. The unpredictability of our mood disorder hunkers down into that mysterious cavern where feelings become facts. In this isolation, we have few weapons against the verbal abuse we inflict upon ourselves. Here we become the victims of our own self-generated “badmouthing.”
Because I learned early on that this internal enemy is far more powerful than anything attacking me on the outside, I have spent considerable time trying to manage my inner thought life rather than focusing on trying to control other people’s attitudes. I agree with Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Did you ever think that the first giant step along the path to good mental health is an inside job? Why is that? The answer is that we rarely have the power or influence to change what is going on around us--- especially difficult people, places, things or circumstances. The good news is that once we stop focusing our time and energy on the externals, we discover that the secret to successful living is learning how to control our reactions to those things. Now we can be in charge of our life and give up feeling like a powerless victim.
You may have noticed that there are countless books, programs, therapies, support groups (especially Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and 12-Step Groups), and spiritual disciplines that can help us in addition to our pharmaceutical regimens, if we avail ourselves of them! Perhaps one of the most effective weapons we can wield against the slings and arrows of social stigma, is to demonstrate the self imposed discipline of self-control, emotional maturity, and rational thinking in all of our affairs.
- Jacqueline Castine, B.A., is a Community Education Specialist at the Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority. She is the author of I Wish I Could Fix It, But … (Phoenix Publishers, 2005). She can be reached at castinej@occmha.org
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Quoted from Gerald Butler |
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"As the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Day and the election of its first Black president, a few things come to mind. I have no doubt that, were he alive today, Martin would be fighting for the rights of individuals in the mental health system. The basic battles being fought today in this arena are similar to the battles that were fought back in the 60’s for the basic rights, respect and dignity due to all humanity. Once a person is diagnosed or labeled with an illness, they begin to carry the same burden that Black folks had to carry prior to the passage of civil rights laws."
"Obama means change and there is no reason why change should not involve those of us in recovery."
-Gerald Butler, Certified Peer Support Specialist and Consumer Advocate
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Quoted from Pathways to Recovery: A Strengths Recovery Self-Help Workbook (Priscilla Ridgeway, et. al., 2002) |
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"To overcome negative feelings and our resulting sense of impotence, empowerment is crucial, giving us the strength and confidence to individually and collectively make choices and control our own lives ... I find my vulnerability to stress and anxiety, and accompanying symptoms decrease as I gain more control over my life."
- Esso Leete, Consumer Leader
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Quoted from The Language of Recovery (Blue Mountain Press, 2000) |
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"Recovery is ... about learning that you have a choice: You can choose to be hopeful rather than hopeless; you can choose to act from faith rather than react from fear; and you can choose to enjoy life rather than merely survive it."
- Donna Newman
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Quoted from United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1948 |
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Excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 27: Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. Article 29: Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. To view the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its entirety (CLICK HERE)
Quoted from United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1948
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Quoted from Wellness Tool Kit |
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Creating the life that one wants always involves change, and, most often, this involves changing one's thinking and acting.
Quoted from Wellness Tool Kit
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Quoted from Helen Keller |
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Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much
Quoted from Wellness Tool Kit
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