Cartoon-A-Thon’s  Mental Health Hero: UPDATE

It’s the 22nd!  Yes, we are coming to the last few miles of mental health awareness.  I planned on drawing all week but due to work and some kind of jaw/tooth pain, I’ve been sidelined until today.  For the last few weeks, the pain came and went.  I went to the doctor yesterday cause…OUCH, the pain was so severe!!  I’ve always had a high tolerance to pain.  Well, when you consider my past issues with cutting and branding, you  have be able to take what you’re dishing out to yourself.  Still, constant building pain can be overwhelming…meaning, I want this pain over with and fast!!  I know a lot of you reading this understand what I’m talking about first hand.

Now, I’m at the doctor’s office and right off the bat she tells me, ‘my symptoms sound like TMJ.’  I have to get a CAT scan to rule it out.  Other issues could be a tooth thing and then another possibility… (She did not specify since she did not have all the facts)  I’m thinking cancer but she assured me, most likely, it’s TMJ.

I found this info on a website about TMJ.  When I read the symptoms, I had and “AHAAA” moment.  I bolded all of the symptoms I’ve experienced over the past few weeks.  This is not the first time I’ve dealt with this thing. It’s just the first time the pain was off the scale!

Have you wondered why I volunteered to draw 31 cartoons (caricatures) for my Cartoon-a-Thon’s Mental Health Awareness Month Project??  Someone questioned me the other day as to why I volunteer so “little” time toward mental health advocacy.  Implying drawing these cartoons and caricatures could never match her 3 hours a week of volunteering at a local mental health service (names withheld to protect the uninformed).

I’m not on SSI and have to work even when I’m symptomatic! I have to push through the depression or mania to make sure my wife and 4 children have food and we have a roof over our heads.  Sometimes, it does not always work out so smoothly! For example, my cartoon below, reflects what a few of my mental health movements consisted of… Me moving!!