I am grateful to Mental Health Innovation Network (MHIN) for giving me and others with Lived Experience opportunities to tell our stories to help celebrate World Mental Health day on October 10th.

https://www.mhinnovation.net/collaborations/lived-experience-stories

In part:

“My life as a person with bipolar disorder began in 1965 when I spent nine months in a mental hospital. My diagnosis, schizophrenia. But psychiatry was in its infancy. Twenty years later, when there was greater understanding, my diagnosis was changed to bipolar disorder. I received more effective medications and the periods of psychosis that I experienced became less frequent. It was around that time too, at the age of forty, that I adopted the Christian faith.

“Life was difficult. I wanted to have a job like other people but found none. Although I tried a few part time jobs, I could not bear the stress and they did not last long. I was unable to continue my schooling past grade thirteen and become the teacher I had always wanted to be. Those good things of life were not to be mine.

“It is said that trials make you strong. And I wonder, was God preparing me for the wonderful things that would later enter my life? Although those treating me during my time in the hospital had not held out much hope for me, I became a leader of people who, like me, lived with mental health challenges.”

For the rest of the story go to: https://www.mhinnovation.net/blogs/pioneering-spiritual-mental-health-support

If you are interested in sharing your own lived experience story, go to

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