Revised introduction:  2019-01-22

WHY IS MY STORY IMPORTANT?

When I was in the ER on November 12, wishing I could die, I realized I couldn’t die until my story was told. I wanted to talk about some of the work I had done, raising mental health awareness in the church and founding Living Room. I needed to show how things had gone tragically wrong, leaving me a broken person and causing me to leave the church from where all this work had been launched.

When I left, I barely remembered the person I used to be. I had been respected as an innovative leader with a gift of working with troubled individuals. But before I realized it I started receiving treatment that made me feel worthless.

For over twenty years I had fought against the injustice of stigma. Now I found myself personally having suffered one of the worst cases of stigma I had thought possible. I ended up emotionally damaged needing many hours of psychotherapy.

The reasons I’m writing my story:

  • I’m trying to reclaim the life I lost by remembering and telling about better days.
  • I’m sharing the blog that was started when Living Room was founded in 2006. It contains history worth sharing.
  • The story shows how a person with mental illness can be a good leader when given support.
  • I have suffered greatly. Telling my story is helping me heal.
  • I want to help readers realize the great damage stigma can cause.