Thanks HD for sharing your insight on living with mental illness. I too have struggled for decades with complex PTSD. It is exhausting trying to explain to people why I can't just "forget about the traumas I have experienced". I've always considered myself a SURVIVOR versus victim. Since losing my ability to work and support myself I've tried to focus on mental health advocacy by joining the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI). I also volunteer for Suicide Awareness & Prevention to educate others about the importance of listening and TRYING to understand mental illness. Unfortunately, I live in a community that still stigmatizes those with mental illness.

Keeping local NAMI chapters alive is a challenge because people would rather ignore the reality and pretend it doesn't affect them and the people they love. My family is ashamed of me & my mental illness and resents that I moved back to the city of my birth after an absence of 30 years. If I had won my disability case when I first applied 9 years ago, I may have been able to return to the workforce. I'm still fighting for my disability, but too much damage has been done in the denial process. Homeless for 19 months now, I feel irretrievably broken despite many gifts and talents. I'm so emotionally fragile that I fear being around people.

Thanks again for sharing!