Determined to Help Others Along the Path Through Life

Determined to Help Others Along the Path Through Life
By Steven Alvarez, Intern, Urban Justice Center's Mental Health Project

Finding Purpose During the Good and the Bad Times

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. If it weren’t for my own struggles, and meeting many peers with the same issues, I would never have gotten into this work. One friend that I met, Faigy Mayer, would ultimately set me forth on a new path in life, to work in mental health. I met Faigy during this transitional phase of my life. When she died, it only fueled me deeper along my path.

Growing up, I remember being terribly shy and not having many friends. I grew up in a hostile environment in which my dad (although I love him to this day) was physically and verbally abusive to my mother. I ended up inheriting his anger.

One day I stopped doing my homework. I couldn’t find the motivation, and worried that the kids at school would make fun of me. So rather than face the embarrassment I stayed at home. Eventually my mother took me to see the guidance counselor at school. The guidance counselor asked me if I wanted to go to class. Since I feared my classmates, I got angry and knocked everything off of her desk. She called the police, and when they came, I wouldn’t talk to them. They took me to a hospital, in which I was later admitted. I would live with the label of “crazy” from that point forward. I was only ten years old.

I began to act out and live by my own rules. I wasn’t the class clown; I was the class terror. Cursing out the professors, getting into fights, cutting class, smoking weed, and the like. I even remember getting picked on by the special-ed students and fighting back in the craziest ways possible to make them leave me alone. I was getting bullied, and unfortunately, to fit in, I was also a bully.

During this point, I was put on one of the most powerful drugs on the market called Clozaril, an atypical antipsychotic, usually used as a last ditch effort to treat the most severe cases of psychosis. Its list of side-effects are horrendous, but the worst required me to take a blood test to check my white blood cell count. Besides killing off my white blood cells, my weight ballooned to 300 pounds.

When I was taken off Clozaril my life changed. I suddenly became a new person, mentally and physically. My therapist describes me as waking up, as if a whole new person arrived, as if I had been living in a bubble all these years. My life started to transform. I became more socially active, lost 100 pounds, gained friends, and a girlfriend. Amazing things started to happen.

I relapsed in 2011 and was hospitalized three times that year. I emerged with a new vision, but unfortunately I was heavily medicated, and regained all of the weight I had lost. Still set on my mission, I eventually got off of another antipsychotic, Zyprexa, and lost the hundred pounds once again.

During this time, I ran support groups, threw the craziest parties, hiked, bowled, played pool, anything and everything, with a group of friends I will love for life. I credit two “Meetup” groups for my recovery: NYCDSG (New York City Depression Support Group) and, first and foremost, the New York Shyness and Social Anxiety Meetup Group. Through these social interactions I have lived several lifetimes in a matter of years. 

In January of 2016, I enrolled in the Howie the Harp Peer Advocacy Program. The training was like no other. Every day was a struggle, but also a gift. I began to realize that all of the things I went through had a meaning and purpose. I needed to suffer so that I could help decrease the suffering of others. The training was awesome and the people I met even more so. 

One day a friend messaged me about an Open Mic Night hosted by the Urban Justice Center, the law office I’m currently writing from. If I learned anything, it is that experiences, both good and bad, will prepare you for the future. Sometimes in life, our future works out based upon our plans and sometimes it doesn't. I often reminisce about my friend Faigy, and the times I went to visit her in the hospital. I know she would want me to continue to help others as I helped her and to never let go.

About an Individual Named Chrissy

About an Individual Named Chrissy

By Chrissy M. Strawn

Transforming Challenges into Success

Chrissy is an introvert. She likes to meet new people, but on her own terms. She can be honest to a fault. She is a very bright interesting person. She lives with her husband Lance who takes very good care of her. He is also a great cook. Chrissy is an army veteran who gave five years of service when she was found to have a service-related disability, for which she now receives compensation from the Veterans Administration.

She has a diverse array of talents. She is a brass instrument musician, and also a fourth degree black belt in karate. Her current major activity in life is volunteering with NAMI connection groups, of which she currently co-facilitates three. Every Saturday afternoon she attends her home group with Lance.

Chrissy is a photographer and artist. She had a long career as a telecom technician that lasted 20 years. She is unable to work anymore due to the disabilities she currently suffers. She has chronic back pain from the hard work she did in the telecom business.

Chrissy is a disabled person on the inside with borderline personality disorder, adjustment disorder and more, but she shines when she is talking to new people.

She has seen her share of trouble. She was convicted in 1998 for touching her daughter inappropriately, costing her a twenty year sentence. She is currently on parole in Portland, Oregon. From her own point of view, she is an acquired taste. She can be somewhat of a braggadocio. But she likes to listen too.

Chrissy is a very compassionate and empathic person. Caring and selective, she is generous with those she calls friends, and does not take friendship lightly. Helping people brings a shine to her life. A transgendered individual who is male to female, she suffered great gender dysphoria, the conflict between a person's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies as, during the last years of her male existence. In 2004 she started her transition from male to female.

As of 2014, Chrissy is much more stable. She credits NAMI.org for her current stability and continues to help others the best way she can. She also took DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) at the VA and continues to receive therapy from her therapist while seeing her psychiatrist on a regular basis. Chrissy has great empathy for her fellow mental health peers. She took some classes to become a peer support specialist and connection facilitator. Those courses include peer to peer, peer support specialist training, and connection facilitators course. It gratifies her deeply to assist others.

Chrissy prides herself for her ability to stay calm in a dramatic situation. As it is her role to help those in need, she works to calm and understand what troubles her peers. It isn’t easy to be rational when all hell is breaking loose. But that is what her job entails. Peer support is worth it when the other person says “thank you” or “I am sorry.” She loves the challenge and reward that comes from helping others. She would encourage others interested in the helping profession to check out their local NAMI office, who are always on the look-out for able volunteers.

Advice from Chrissy: For those who have mental illness, consider social security disability. Though you may initially be denied, the vast majority of people are denied the first time. Chrissy recommends obtaining a social security lawyer. They specialize in the area of helping those with mental health problems get the fiscal assistance needed.

Chrissy’s solid twenty years in the telecom business built up a large cache for her to receive disability income. What you receive will depend on the amount of cache accumulated while you were working. The more you earned and the years you worked, the more that cache will be. Along with SSD you will qualify for Medicare. That will take some of the money you get for your benefit in order to pay for your portion of Medicare. Get the support you need. Apply today with a social security lawyer.