The Mindstorm

Category: NaBloPoMo

  • Thanksgiving and a Teen Gift Guide

    By Besimo – click for original on Flickr All I want for Christmas is the same kind of uneventful day we had for Thanksgiving. It’s been a few years since we’ve had an uneventful Thanksgiving, and I gotta admit, it was nice.  We stayed in our PJ’s all day, cooked our turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed…

  • Ekphrasis – Free Writing Based on an Image NBPHM / NaBloPoMo Day 22

    Photo by ashleydoar I’ve seen this installation at the Art Institute of Chicago.  It’s meant to represent the artist’s partner who died of AIDS; 175 pounds of candy, representing the partner’s body weight when he was healthy.  Visitors are encouraged to take a piece of candy, representing how the disease ate away at him, and…

  • Just A Friday Update, No Big Whoop – NBPHM / NaBloPoMo Day 18

    Even with the holiday coming, it’s been a pretty good week for Tim.  One rough morning earlier this week when he called Tom and said, “I’m hyper, I’m bouncing, I need you to talk me down,” Tom did. The staffing call – a quarterly round of BS that we have to endure to keep Tim’s…

  • Deja Vu All Over Again

    …My son Tim, who has a diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder, turns 18 in eight months, and he will age out of his current RTC placement. He won’t be graduating high school (read here about the Super Senior program), but we will have to decide whether he should come home or we should find another residential…

  • It’s Not Easy – NHBPM / NaBloPoMo Day 15

    I’ve posted this song before, so if you’ve been brave enough to have been reading my blog for the past three plus  years, you’ve seen it posted before.  But there is no song that better describes my little boy than this one.  He is my Superman.

  • It’s Monday Again – NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 14

    So…another week begins. We spent time Thursday and Friday last week talking as a family about what’s going on with The Girl* and talking to her about what an evaluation is.  We’d had a cocktail party scheduled for Saturday night for weeks and, while debating if we should cancel, we all decided not to.  She…

  • Screw It

    I’m in a wickedly foul mood today.  I don’t really have the time to be in this bad of a mood, but I am, and there’s very little I can do about it other than stew in my own bile for a while.  At least until something else captures my attention away from feeling sorry…

  • Advocate or Hardass? NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 9

    There has to be a fine line between being an advocate and fighting stigma, and being a killjoy.  I still don’t think I’ve found it.  Here’s an example: a friend recently posted a link to a t-shirt on her she thought was funny, but is clearly poking fun at a mental health disorder – in…

  • What’s the Truth? NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 8

    Ok – I’m back on the WEGO Health prompts today!  Today’s topic is Three Truths and One Lie: Tell us 3 things that are true about you, your condition, your Health Activism, or your life. Now tell us 1 lie. Do you think we will be able to tell the difference?  Let’s see! Mental illness runs…

  • Stigma and Sophie’s Choice Part 2 – NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 7

    Continuing from yesterday, I do think mental illness has a caste system.  The disorders that are seen as less scary or less threatening to anyone but the person suffering are at the top.  The farther down the scale you go, the more misunderstood the illnesses become.  They culminate at the bottom of the list with…