First things first…

Before I begin the journey here on Mental Health Notes and in my own quest for knowledge and understanding – I guess I should tell you a little about me and just what makes me want to take up blogging residence here on MHN.

As long as I can remember, my grandmother suffered from ‘something’ that no one could ever quite put their finger on. It wasn’t until a couple years after her passing that I was able to recognize some of the classic, textbook symptoms of depression and bipolar.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no doctor and I would certainly never try to issue a diagnosis – but if my grandmother were still alive, I would personally take her to as many doctors as it would take to get her properly diagnosed with whatever mental illness was consuming her and her life.

Grandma was a wonderful woman, but she had her moments. Almost never with me though. I always seemed to have a knack for communicating with her that very few seemed to ever be able to accomplish. And by communicating, I mean sitting there, listening to her talk, nodding my head in agreement and tossing in an occasional ‘uh huh.’

My grandmother had five children and one stepchild.

In their adult life, those children never knew a time in which they were not being pitted against one another for whatever reason. In hindsight, I think my grandma saw the real life drama as her children needing her – if for nothing else, to be a sounding board for their own personal problems.

In my adult life, I wound up marrying a man with addictive tendencies. Those addictions spanned from tobacco, to drugs, to alcohol and even to women. That marriage lasted 5 very long years.

Later, I myself would be diagnosed with clinical depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. My OCD tendencies aren’t extreme but are enough to cause the slightest hint of chaos in my everyday life.

Have you ever heard of a person living with OCD being married to a person who has been diagnosed with bipolar and PTSD? Talk about excitement! There’s never a dull moment around our house!

I guess you can see how a little life journey that’s sprinkled with lessons in communication, understanding and knowledge could come in handy – and thus my reason for signing on as the writer/editor of Mental Health Notes.

There’s plenty more life experience stories I will share and hope to grow to understand better – but this will put you within the ballpark of just how chaotic and challenging my mixed up dysfunctional mental unhealthy life tends to be.