City Voices New Youtube Channel!

City Voices has a new Youtube Channel! And this is our first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2rYkShllYE

Some great Resources in Mental Health in and around NYC

Hello City Voices Readers:

This is the CIO Will Jiang, MLS of New York City Voices letting you know about some exciting, upcoming events as well as a great newsletter archive of a great support group:

Mood Disorders Support Group Newsletter Archive (MDSG):

•  http://www.mdsg.org/newsletters.php

The Return of the  third season of the "Healthy Minds" series is big news

• http://bbrfoundation.org/healthyminds

I like also, the mention of the radio program in the namynycmetro newslettter. 

"TUNE INTO TABOO TALK RADIO DURING

MINORITY MENTAL HEALTH AWARNESS MONTH"

Please show your support and tune in to listen at www.blogtalkradio.com/taboo-talk

 

• July 3: NAMI IOOV presenters: Christina Sparrock and Mrs. Arlene Day 
• July 10: Famous Psychiatrist, Dr. Dolores Malaspina 
• July 17: NAMI IOOV presenters: Lucy Chi and Crispin Jackson 
• July 24: Famous Author/Mental Health Advocate, Deborah Cofer 
• July 31: Famous Psychiatrist and Famous Author, Dr. Sidney Hankerson and Mental Health Advocate, Terrie Williams

If you like any of these resources please leave a comment below. Even if you don't like them, it would be interesting to see your comments, as they may help others.

Mental health issues effect everyone, and that includes New Yorkers

Mental health issues effect everyone, and that includes New Yorkers. For example: Latinos living in the US, women, 45+ers, and the unemployed are groups at a higher risk for developing clinical depression or anxiety disorders. But what can be done about this?

I worked in at Columbia Psychiatry/NYSPI as their patient librarian where I procured for our Spanish-speaking patients the best mental health information that was available in English and Spanish, because knowledge is power. I read a lot during my tenure at the patient library, and I wanted to share my knowledge, so I wrote nine books. The books I wrote, I wrote to combat the stigma of mental illness and to educate.

My titles deal with mental health issues and language acquisition. Two of my books received the honor of a recommendation by the APA President Jeffrey Lieberman and internationally known mental health advocate Elyn Saks J.D., PhD.

http://www.amazon.com/author/williamjiang

Needed: Your Advice for Psychiatrists, Therapists, and Allied Health Professionals

Needed: Your Advice for Psychiatrists, Therapists, and Allied Health ProfessionalsThe Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery is dedicating a section of its website to helping professionals better support peers or c/s/x in recovery. Please send observations, anecdotes, and insights for professionals  to Elizabeth Saenger, PhD, at esaenger@coalitionny.org.Thanks.

Are You Ready for the World of Work?

Are You Ready for the World of Work?

By Sharon Goldberg

Consider some things first

There is a lot of talk lately about consumers getting off the disability track and going to work. Well, it is a lot easier said than done. This is especially so if you happen to have an emotional disability like I do. I feel as if I have spent my entire life preparing for work and living my life through work.

After I graduated from college, I found myself ill-prepared for the business world. I needed skills. The type of skills needed to succeed in the business world are as follows: clerical skills be it math, computer, typing, word processing, bookkeeping, accounting, etc. All skills not acquired in a liberal arts college.

More important than the above skills is the ability to deal with people in a personable, social manner. If you are not a people-person, you will have many problems.

You must be flexible and able to adjust your attitude to the politics of the office community. You must be pleasant, non-combative, and able to take criticism without taking it to heart.

You have to be able to combine all these skills into a reliable, likeable, capable and workable employee in order to succeed in the world of work.

What are prospective employers looking for? From my own experience, I recall many an employer's want-ad. “Must be a people-person. Must be diligent and detail-oriented. Must have computer skills. Must be well organized. Must be able to take direction. Must be a self-starter. Must be able to multitask. Must be willing to work overtime.”

Some ideas I would suggest in order to decide whether you are ready to work is to decide what you are good at. Are you good with numbers? Do you like to write? Do you like people? Are you artistic? Are you good with computers?

Do you need some type of skills-training? Perhaps you need to sit down with a job counselor. Maybe you need to take an aptitude test. Perhaps you want to start with a volunteer job. Maybe you want to start working part-time.

All of these suggestions would have helped me a great deal but I did none of them. To make it easier, please do as I suggest.

Are you ready for the world of work? Think long and hard about it before you jump in.

Editor's Note: Please don't be frightened of the possibility of work after reading this article. There are ways of getting your feet wet before you decide whether or not to take the plunge. For instance, you can join a clubhouse and participate in their temporary employment program and get paid for doing work that is at or below your potential. Or, you can go to a consumer-friendly employment program and talk to a working peer who can counsel you about employment based on your needs. Two such programs are Network Plus (718) 797-2509 or Network Plus West (718) 377-8568. Tell them City Voices sent you and receive a wink and a nod.

My Story by Emily

My Story

By Emily

Hope you get something from it

I'm twenty-six and I have social anxiety and agoraphobia. I've had it since before I can remember, although I wasn't diagnosed until I was twenty-one. Anxiety runs in my family.

I was bullied as a child, though I can't remember a whole lot from my childhood, except for various instances both positive and negative. I don't remember a whole lot of the bullying, just specific feelings and perceptions. I strongly suspect that I was clinically depressed since I was twelve or thirteen years old. I was depressed constantly, always fighting back tears. Getting out of bed was a constant struggle. When I got out of middle school, I improved, but not much. After I graduated high school I started to get worse. I was kicked out of college for missing so many classes, because I was too terrified to leave my apartment.
I had suspected I had a mental illness since I was eleven. I was always terrified of ending up in a straightjacket, and would rather be dead than go to a place where such a thing could occur. I tried to hide my mental illness for as long as I could. I was teased a lot for being weak, although I still think of myself that way. I wanted to be strong, and so I would 'punish' myself by cutting my wrists, starving myself, etc. 
Age thirteen was the worst time period, as I began to think about ending my life. I thought about when or where and how I would do it, what I would leave behind, and what I would write in my note. But I didn't really want to leave and searched for any reason to stay. Right about that time I started developing coping mechanisms. In the end, I decided to suffer through it because dying would hurt my parents. 
My parents had sat me down and told me I really needed to see a psychologist. I was terrified. The people I mostly depended on were throwing me under the bus. But I was too tired to fight them. When I went to the psychologist, I could not have gotten a better one. She was friendly, comforting and classy. We even shared the same political beliefs. She made me feel a whole lot better about everything; it wasn't nearly as horrible as I feared it was going to be. 
I was a bit gun-shy about going back to school because of what happened at MSU. I went to Drury for a while, which was great, but the same problem kept coming up. I got panic attacks every time I thought about going to class. So I went on sabbatical. I got a job at Prometric/Sylvan as a TCA, but I couldn't answer the phone so they had to let me go.
My coping mechanisms included horseback riding, my dog, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and Digimon stories that exhibit humor and heroism make me feel much better. I've always been a horse nut. I feel very spiritually connected when I'm around horses. I still do those things now, but I also have other tools. I cover my hair with a tichel or head scarf, I employ lavender scents, meditate, pray, exercise, and of course, take my meds. 

My religious path has been long, arduous, and conflicted. One reason I was so adamant that I deserved my pain was I rationalized that God wouldn't let this happen to me if I didn't deserve it. When I was thirteen, I felt that God had abandoned me and so I began questioning Christianity. Now I'm twenty-six, and a polytheist Pagan. But, I'm much happier.

Recovery is the Level of Happiness We Obtain

Recovery is the Level of Happiness We Obtain

By Jeffrey V. Perry CPRP, MSM, Program Manager for Baltic Street, AEH, Inc. Peer Bridger Program

The pursuit of happiness is something we must remain vigilant in attaining. It is the central core of any human’s right to be. Recovery, in my estimation, is solely about one’s level of happiness in perspective to a worldview of satisfaction, not the individual short-term peace we could have. I hope my recovery will be long-term and self-sustaining. My life’s happiness, health, and mental stability are only as good as the level of satisfaction I have within, and put in place for, myself. My life goals in recovery are for this quality of life, which I see as what any person with a history of diagnosed or undiagnosed mental illness, substance abuse, medical problem or anyone with a compromised condition, deserves.

One’s awareness of their personal level of satisfaction is the most important factor in understanding if there is a “problem here.” It is often those undiagnosed individuals who have not addressed their situation by getting help, treatment, or services, who feel their sense of satisfaction diminished or who are in a total denial of any problem, and fight an uphill battle; while those diagnosed face other struggles, such as a search for any level of recovery, which is supposed to, by definition, be the down-hill fight. When you find the right combination of treatment for yourself, there is a better chance for recovery. But oftentimes, treatment may not focus on any level of recovery, and instead focus only on symptoms management. This, yet, at the cost of a diminished level of personal happiness and a lackluster recovery that takes time away for one’s regular life pursuits, cloaked in a stigma of social inferiority, particular in today’s I-based “IPod” existence.

We have being fighting against stigma on many fronts in our recovery, yet never did we conceive that it would in fact increase rather than be eliminated. As technology becomes more refined the gap between those looking for real happiness becomes much wider, because we have to wade through every new wave in technology to understand what we need in order to be happy again. Not to mention the high prices that we can never afford while in economic symptom arrest.

While under symptom management, in many instances, when our possessions are taken away for old safety-based reasons, they are never accounted for, or remembered (by the confiscator), or promptly returned. Where others would be furious, we become justifiably upset, yet, we, and our possessions, may be dismissed to causality.

So, we get to understand that life can be cruel, even under the direct care of others who prefer to see us however is most convenient at that particular time (not to single out any institution or individual). It seems to me that it is second nature to take advantage of the disabled, who many look down upon, or simply have low regard for in contrast to their “able” selves, and who believe that the disabled, of course, are naturally less happy, or, at least, they should be. It is indeed a miracle if a disabled person is happy. When will we each admit that we are all disabled or handicapped in some way? Is it not only about personal fulfillment or about accomplishing tasks?

One of the failures of symptom management is that it has not yet helped people rise to the level where they can find the kind of work that fulfills them. Medication cannot motivate a person or inspire them. And it certainly may help us do that which we want not to do, like not thinking clearly, being irritable and bothered by everything, or just not feel well, and possibly even behave in a negative manner. But, all in all, it’s about progress, isn’t it? We must move forward like anyone else. Right?

Note: This essay is from, A Peer on Peer Perspective in Psychiatric Health (In Prose and Poetry) by Jeffrey V. Perry, CPRP available in e-book formats. For more from Mr. Perry, please visit http://www.jeffreyvperry.com