Chato’s Wife
2012 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon

Drawing done by Chato Stewart

Hi! I feel so privileged and honored to be included, however, I am no hero…just an ordinary woman relying on her faith to help her cope with extraordinary family circumstances.

My thoughts, prayers and “respect” go to all True Heroes–those living with the day-to-day, moment-to-moment challenges of chronic illness, pain of any kind and to their caregivers and loved ones!!

I’m thankful for the courageous example of the hero in my life, you know him as Chato Stewart. My husband has been a mentor of mine for 20 plus years now. The lessons he teaches have not always been funny or easy, but necessary for my personal growth as an individual. I am still a work in progress, but hope to reach my full potential some day…

I’ve learned the importance of distinguishing the “real” person from the symptoms of his illness. I’ve learned the value of patience, endurance, forgiveness and compassion when dealing with unexpected, unforeseen chaos. I’ve learned a family can survive many emotional tsunamis with God’s help and with support of true friends. Most of all, I’ve learned LOVE….”bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things….because Love never fails.”

Cartoon-A-Thon: Humble Beginnings

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you probably know about my annual Cartoon-A-thon for Mental Health Awareness month.  Here in short is the history of the Cartoon-A-thon:

In 2008 when I started blogging, I decided to do something special for the month of mental illness awareness in May. (Will you?)  I decided I would draw a cartoon for each day of May. In 2008 and 2009, I drew just cartoons.  That was a success, but something was missing.  I felt I was being a little too self-deluded in my own cartoons. Then, I drew two of my readers into cartoon characters.

My peers were so elated that I drew them into the cartoons. Which gave me an idea -  but I didn’t think I had the skill set to even attempt this idea.

WEGO Health is a social media online health community with health activists from every sort of health condition! Focusing on the top 10% of  influencers, organizers, connectors, leaders and contributors are passionate about helping others lead healthier lives.

This past year (2011) they started the Health Activist Awards.  I was nominated for two awards from my peers.  The nominations were given to Health Activist Judging Panels to pick their favorites out of all the nominees. It was a time-intensive task and the  judges took the responsibility quite seriously.

Let’s look at the Hilarious Health Activist Award Finalists. One of these will be the winner – but all are incredible Health Activists that you should know.

Medication Bottles: [Painting Tic-Tacs half blue to look like pills and medication capsules.]

Caption: Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals!

Should you be worried that your Pharmaceuticals are counterfeit? Are your SSRI’s…”SSR-NOTS”?!  The FDA has seen an increase of medication fakes hitting our shores lately.  While most are not psychotropics or common meds for Bipolar, Depression or Anxiety, it does make one wonder and worry (a cause for real concern.)

A worthy topic for discussion: Do you know, for sure, the pills you swallow are not sugar pills? Or worse…a watered-down, weaker version of much-needed medication?!

When I won the 1st place in the DBSA 2009 Facing Us Video Contest, I could not of envisioned/believed how much positive empowerment that little video would bring myself and others. The truth is… I thought after I got the prize money that would be the end of the video.

Not so fast!  That video helped me get to my first DBSA conference in 2010… Being there lead me to being able to do Stand -up comedy for the first time… I thought, “cool” nothing else could come from the video right…?