Today, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day.  Interestingly enough…it is also the day my Father was born in 1933.  My Dad lived with Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) that was not entirely diagnosed till about a year before he died in 1996.  It was out of control most of his life and growing up in the unstable, toxic environment lead to many problems.

When my father was balanced, he was the most loving and caring person, but that time was short-lived.  I grew up in a divided home between extremes of sanity and insanity.  My siblings were not spared the toxicity of home life.  Yes at times, far too often then now, we turned on each other like ravenous dogs at the kill.

I am able to look back at that time and reflect on many different twists and turns that led me, my brother and my sisters to survive.  One thing that saved us was finding faith in a real hope for a better future.  It was that new-found faith that helped take my proverbial “demons” away. 

“Never be afraid to ask for help.”  This is important in life and  is one of Chato’s Life Quotes To Live By:

Words Of The Wisdomless: Life -
“If you wish you could do it all over again… then, you didn’t learn a thing!”

I find I learn more from my failures then by my successes.  It’s like my own recovery,  each time I fail I am able to avoid that trigger or situation the next time around.  I guess you could say, my recovery is made up on nothing but failures. Here is a few more Life Quotes To Live By.

Words Of The Wisdomless: Candy -
“Fill your candy jars with your failures so when you succeed you can taste how sweet is victory.”

Words Of The Wisdomless: Recovery
“I will concentrate on my own recovery, always moving ahead no matter how many small steps forward it takes! Although, if you want to give me a ride on your back, that’ll work too.”

Originally Post http://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor ©2011

Jodi Riley Mental Health Hero Coach

You Can Have More Joy and More Happiness Right NOW!

Jodi Riley wants you to know that happiness is always at our fingertips. Her firm belief that it is the  responsibility of those who have acquired the secrets and the skills to access that happiness to teach others how to find happiness for themselves.  That is Jodi Riley’s mission and the focus of her website The Secrets to Being Happy!

The 5 Steps for Better Living

Originally Post http://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor ©2011

Meet our second Mental Health Hero Clive Edwards.  He is a well traveled guy, both in reality and in his own mind with his recovery.  From England to Saudi Arabia, Singapore and America…  Clive a.k.a “WILD” has been around…even lived in L.A. during the 1990 riots.

His recovery, like our own, sometimes comes with hills and valleys and his mental health story of survival and recovery and “wellness” is amazing!  Read more about Clive and each Mental Health Hero at http://mentalhealthhero.com.

The Last 6 Mental health Humor Cartoons

Copyright http://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor

What makes you happy? This week we finish up our 5 Questions With Tracy Anglada and the Bipolar Bear (part 1), (part 2). Tracy is the author of ‘Brandon and the Bipolar Bear’ and has a total of five books to her credit. She finds happiness in helping parents with children living with mental disorders. Brandon and the Bipolar Bear has been nominated as a finalist for the Reader’s Choice Awards at About.com.

We can help make Tracy happy by voting once per day through March 8th: www.tinyurl.com/votebpbear When she wins, she will experience true JOY. Please, show your support for this special book as it approaches 10 years of helping kids with bipolar disorder! Now I will let Tracy tell you about all her books.

(If you would like to be part of my “5 Questions” leave a comment or contact me via Facebook and we will set up an interview.)