It has mine. I have a close, close family member with schizophrenia. This has been so since I was the age of 13. It has caused much pain, confusion and frustration to me and my family for many years until we had the situation under control.
In my case, my family member lives with a caretaker and has a fiduciary to oversee her trust fund which she lives on. It was a great thing to have a trust fund in this case of she would be in state hospital. She will not take her mediation and goes off and on them which is hard for everyone but as she has become older, she is easier to reason with.
Voices, when I was a child I had to try to understand how someone heard voices and listened to them. It was very, very hard to loose this family member to the disease which is what happened. Although she is safe and can be visited, she will not stay medicated enough to have a real relationship. Also, as a child, I was worried I would "catch it," and went through many years of stress over that alone.
Does anyone else want to share if they have had mental illness touch their lives?
dancer9

yea its a tough one carring for someone thats mentalie ill can couse all sorts of strange problems.

Then there is the weighing up of not taking stuff personalie becouse its due to their illness and balancing out your owen self-esteem. If you get to talk of the situasion and its painfull or ongoinlie painfull then the advice one gets is just "leave them" no one should have to put up with that!. this i struggle with becouse in a sences its dooming everieone thats mentalie ill to be dumped out of relashionship pronto. wearby its obvouse that if someone is mentalie ill then at times they aint gonna be in their right mind and say do or behave in strange and or hurtfull ways. So carring or being a partner of someone who is mentalie ill can be verie isolatting becouse you get left with no one to descuss the stuff with becouse of the predijices to your partner and to oneself. i think their need be a diffrent yardstick to mesure behaviour towards a partner when they are mentalie ill. what peoples tolarances is or abilitie to cope varie diffrentlie. that when i think the old support groups come in handie thers nuthing as good as peer sharring for the partner themselfs becouse of identificasion


i come back to this if i may i gotta go wash the hair die outa my hair

I think America lacks in caring for the mentally ill. Many end up homeless and the violent ones are turned loose on society to kill or harm the public. Just spoke with a woman whose son is mentally ill and violent and the state is turning him loose in a few months when he turns 18 and she is scared to death for herself and others. He tried to kill her.

That said, I have always felt my father was a little "off" mentally and knew it and tried to push it off on me. Always told me whenever he disciplined me that I was mentally ill. Very difficult to grow up thinking that about yourself. So yes, it did affect me deeply.

Why is that? My mom was similar to that. She always thought I was mentally sick. Maybe I was. I do know that I was the last child and by the time I was a teenager, I think she was just plain tired of raising kids and wanted me to leave. So I did. I worked in a private psych hospital for 8 years at night (10pm-7am). What a trip that was! I finally had to leave for fear of losing my own mind. Fortunately, I was making a move 60 miles up the coast and I think it saved my sanity....well, somewhat. The only claim to mental illness that I had was a very serious post-partum depression after my only child was born. Within 6 months it became a post-partum psychosis and I was hospitalized. It was a terrible time to get back on my feet. Of course, we're talking 1975 and the antidepressants were not so good back then, so I just walked around zombie like for months which made it worse.

Being bipolar affects me nearly every day. I'm constantly on the watch so that I don't do or say something that will make someone suspect something. I'm very open with all of you. But, I'm not with others. Not even close family members. My husband knows, of course, and my middle daughter, but not my oldest or my youngest. Or, maybe they do, if my daughter has told them and just said, don't discuss it with mom. I don't know. My mom knows, but my inlaws don't. Unless my husband has told them, but I don't think so.

None of my writing community know. And, it's difficult to explain away my cycles. I have times when I can write and times when I can't. Right now, I'm depressed. When I'm depressed, I don't get on any of my forums and I don't socialize as much. As you've probably noticed. My doctor tells me this is a pattern with me and it always happens around the holidays so to ride it out and wait for the new year and not let it bother me. I still get manic sometimes, and it really throws me for a loop. Have you ever been manic and still depressed? Really messes with your mind.

I take my medications regularly. I don't mess with that. I know how important it is. And because of my very strict schedule of medication taking, it restricts our activities. When I went to the writers conference last weekend, I had to carry around a very large pill carrier with a pill alarm set to the various times for me to take my pills. (I kept it in a tote bag) I felt conspicuous, but hardly anyone noticed I think. No one mentioned anything.

When in public, sometimes I feel "exposed" with a big sign on my head that says BIPOLAR. There's such a stigma attached to the disorder. Most of it negative. There's been news coverage about people with Bipolar who've disrupted airplanes and become violent, and been shot, and it just hasn't been good news.

I shared my diagnosis with one friend and she's never called me back. I've tried getting in touch with her and no response. I have shared with another friend and she's been very open and understanding, so for that I'm grateful.

I was able to tell you, my boomer sisters because you didn't mock me, or judge me. For that I thank you. I'm afraid others in my "real life" won't be so kind.

So, for now, my Bipolar continues to affect my life as my secret. For now.

The only claim to mental illness that I had was a very serious post-partum depression after my child this is my first or big part in depression for the same reasons ladie-jane, think post partum started it then some seriouslie damaging life experinces got in the way of life when the child was 3 mounths old. T

The combinasion was disastrise, i wasen't hopitalised and the care of the child was still left up to me alone, with some help from communitie childcareing organisasions. My partner at the time wasen't a help and in fact made a lot of things worse as my depression was more like an inpatsont hinderances to them.

I don't know if once the brains chemicals have been seriouslie out of balances they never reallie go back to being fullie in balances, but i still finding myself getting depressed from when the light fades, about september in this part of world untill febuarie, then the light gets brighter and my mood lifts. Its that SAD thing with light levels. well i think i always gotten a bit blue over winter and since i was seriouslie depressed i am a bit more humble and take care of my self better in relashion to my mood especiallie if its going low, so i more liklie to go get help i need if i think its needed.

vickie i also wonder why ya onlie get the negative side of mental health being bleated all over the news and media, it sells stories but has a load of people afraid of the mentailie ill. Some people may be violent as di was saying but not all by any means but still listening to media hype one would think it was all mentalie unwell people. i don't like that attitude as well. like di i would love people getting the best type of treatment avalible to them spacificallie for their symptoms and condistion. was it decartes who said one could tell how civilised a culture was by how well they tended to their mentalie ill. Thats not just your countrie i'm talking about i more refairing to this one (i let you ladies comment on your owen countrie lol)

i have been remanticalie involved with someone mentalie unwell and not good at taking their medicasion or looking after themselfs and all i can say was its an experinces i aint gonna go near again, ever. Unwell or not the indivduel gotta take some steaps and responcibilitie towards keeping their behaviour level and within appropriate boundries, if they trulie can't be responcible for the symptomes unmedicated, then this is their onlie area. I have seen and knowen the diffrences appropriate medicasion and interventions make to somene unwell and its astounding.....well worth it if its at all pleasable to have it taken care off.

I was just reading an article on post partum psychosis. Very scary.

Vicki, I can't believe your friend turned her back on you. I gave my book to my next door neighbor in TN to read (she asked for it) and she never spoke to me again. A lot of weirdos out there.

I think it's wonderful that all of you are able to open up here and share because it does make a difference to others.

It's so true that people get afraid of anything that's out of the realm of their own little world just as you've all said. How can a friend be a true friend if they turn their back on you when you reveal something that is only life as it is...for you. People are afraid of mental illness or domestic violence largely due to ignorance and not really wanting to know. God help them if it happens to them. I was hospitalized more than once. I was a total mess in those days. But looking back now I think I was a very depressed child and teenager. Peoples opinions were a lot different in those regards in the 60's and 70's. But it's sad to see that those mindsets still exist everywhere today. People can complain about their aches and pains but somehow feel that the mind and brain are somehow not related to the body??? Kinda strange thinking when you see it like that!

LADIEJANES QUOTE. People can complain about their aches and pains but somehow feel that the mind and brain are somehow not related to the body??? Kinda strange thinking when you see it like that!END QUOTE
yea it is strange when put lik that LJane. its the it might be catching thing, maybee, like you catch mental unwellness or disabilitie.
di if it onlie cost you the price of that one book to find out that frend wasent a frend then you still got of lightlie girl. Knowing your true frends such a blessing and a godsend. i was just posting elswear about lossing a couple frend's due to diagnosis of my son, it hurts...but its bearable. I think i gotten off lightlie ignorances or awkwarness aside, if they don't make it back to me and i have lost a frend then i gratfull to lose them now and not latter.

post partum psychosis is very scary, thing is and i relativlie sure of this that if its gotten earlie enough and treated appropriatlie it cuts dowen the severitie of the symptoms by loads. I don't know if LJ agrees with this or not? Sometimes women don't know, sometimes, gp don't know, sometypes psykes do know but don't treat it right, shame when it could all be diffrent.
still no more kids for me anyway lol.

i was at the course as i posted about in kids tonight and heard parents sharring and talking bout stuff for first time, and i came away thinking it helped them, it helped me just by their openess so i agree with ya DI people opening up may be brave but look at benifit it can have.

Lady Jane,
I was so sorry to hear about your troubles taking care of your illness! You sound like you approach it in a very, very healthy way. A mental illness is just an illness and not a definition of anyone! If one takes their medicine they live their lives like anyone else who needs medicine, ( like myself,) to live their lives!

There is no, or should be no judgement of anyoone with a mental illness. Although I have had a family member who refuses meds, I do know, through her, a number of people who are responsible with their meds and are accomplished, kind and completely "normal," if you compare them to others who do not have the illness. Actually, I think some of those with Mental illnesses can be SMARTER than those without as they try to make their life work and learn so much about life and themselves as well as others.
Congratulations to you, Lady, for being a good person, period, not one with an MI!
dancer