tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14878984.post697584805504803671..comments2023-09-21T04:12:45.614-05:00Comments on Praying on the Prairie: The Church and Mental IllnessTara Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02619365758739247929noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14878984.post-67432226569422076322016-05-23T16:29:04.971-05:002016-05-23T16:29:04.971-05:00Thank you for continuing to tell your story. It...Thank you for continuing to tell your story. It's so important. Tara Ulrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02619365758739247929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14878984.post-24013854706115121942016-05-23T12:36:21.686-05:002016-05-23T12:36:21.686-05:00Everyone needs to keep sharing every varied aspect...Everyone needs to keep sharing every varied aspect of the mental health/illness story as publicly as possible. From my own perspective, you may remember I actually have several disorders that meet DSM criteria (panic disorder, claustrophobia, "something OCD-ish," and abdominal migraine, that technically is neurological, not GI, and treated with both neuro and psych drugs)—as well as a multi-generational family history of serious psych illnesses.<br /><br />I think of the human cost of your Momma's illness and also of mine; although I'm almost astonished – but not quite, since like you I'm persistent, resilient, and hard-working – at how far I've come and the gains I've made, the mis-dx of schizophrenia cost me the years of service in church and world I minimally could have expected; I lost the music school and seminary friends I expected to grow older with; the huge employment gap that employees read as incarceration, addiction, or mental illness, led to total inability to find employment in any of my fields. I think you know how grateful I am for my design skills and for the freelance design gigs I've been getting, but... <br /><br />Also, even carefully in person and only with people of long acquaintance, absolutely no one seems to have understood my attempts to explain I flew down a flight of stairs and sustained a brain injury I didn't figure out until a long time afterwards, and in the intervening years my seeking an answer for my persistently flat affect led to a mis-dx of a major psychotic illness, etc. As one of my psychotherapists said in plain English, "people are so ignorant about mental health." Like you, I haven't always been the best advocate for myself or others, but like you, I'm trying to be open and trying to communicate. Still excited about your book!river songhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01544925349152380920noreply@blogger.com