Today, January 27, is "#BellLet'sTalk" day. For every tweet with that hashtag, or sharing of a specific post from their Facebook page, Bell donates 5 cents to Mental health care.
Bell Let’s Talk
Bell Let’s Talk
Let's Talk (mental health)
- Thread starter AnnaMarie
- Start date
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This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
Part of why this is important to me.....
Someone I knew as an infant, family moved away, didn't see them for years. We reconnected when this daughter was a young adult, but don't get together much, although she and her sister are on my fb page.
One day, she started posting some really weird stuff, first on my page, then by pm. When she started saying things like "I don't want to scare you, but the government is monitoring everything I do", at first I thought she was joking around. She wasn't. Paranoia is one of her symptoms.
I got some private messages from her family members thanking me for trying to help her. I got in touch with her sister, who at first was very defensive. For the safety of her children she has felt it necessary to cut off contact, and she thought I was contacting her to tell her off. I wasn't. I just wanted a bit of information. I ended up being her sounding wall for a while too.
I would like to help them. I can't. But I can let them talk. And I can do that without judging and without trying to offer advice, because I have none and advice isn't always what they need.
Someone I knew as an infant, family moved away, didn't see them for years. We reconnected when this daughter was a young adult, but don't get together much, although she and her sister are on my fb page.
One day, she started posting some really weird stuff, first on my page, then by pm. When she started saying things like "I don't want to scare you, but the government is monitoring everything I do", at first I thought she was joking around. She wasn't. Paranoia is one of her symptoms.
I got some private messages from her family members thanking me for trying to help her. I got in touch with her sister, who at first was very defensive. For the safety of her children she has felt it necessary to cut off contact, and she thought I was contacting her to tell her off. I wasn't. I just wanted a bit of information. I ended up being her sounding wall for a while too.
I would like to help them. I can't. But I can let them talk. And I can do that without judging and without trying to offer advice, because I have none and advice isn't always what they need.
You have kindness and caring in your heart, AnnaMarie. Thank you for being there.
It's looking like they might beat last years numbers. West coast still has a few hours.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do is just listen. People just want to be heard. Unfortunately she has her paranoia, but at least you gave her a moment of time to say, I am listening.
I don't actually think I helped her. But I do think I helped her sister. The sister felt she had no choice but to cut ties for the safety of her children. When she realized I was not judging her for that, she felt safe to just unload a bit. And I was someone who cares, but not as close as an immediate family member who would feel more pain than I would. (That makes sense, right?)
The girl with paranoia, well, that is just one little bit of her problems. I know she went through he!! as a kid. I also know what her parents did to help her, which involved professional help from age 3.
Here is Bell's post today.
The final results are in! Thanks to your support, we saw a record 125,915,295 calls, texts, tweets and shares on Bell Let’s Talk Day. That means an additional $6,295,764.75 will be donated to mental health initiatives across Canada. Incredible work everyone!
Did not hear of the Bell thing till just now, but if other people share their mental health stories I am willing to share mine.
Bell has been doing this for about six years, but as it's a Canadian company and the money goes to Canadian initiatives, it's mostly Canadians that participate.
However, players on our sports teams also tweeted, as did Ellen, which I'm sure brought in a lot of money as she asked her fans to retweet. (Remember how the mittens took off with Oprah?)
~~~
Most of my tweets were retweets or hashtags regarding LGTBQ. Most of my sons's friends in that group have it good (supportive friends and some have supportive families). But services are lacking.
I live in a boarding care which is a facility for people who have mental health. I'm diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I don't tell many people in real life that I have it because I don't want them to stigmatize me.
Part of why this is important to me.....
Someone I knew as an infant, family moved away, didn't see them for years. We reconnected when this daughter was a young adult, but don't get together much, although she and her sister are on my fb page.
One day, she started posting some really weird stuff, first on my page, then by pm. When she started saying things like "I don't want to scare you, but the government is monitoring everything I do", at first I thought she was joking around. She wasn't. Paranoia is one of her symptoms.
I got some private messages from her family members thanking me for trying to help her. I got in touch with her sister, who at first was very defensive. For the safety of her children she has felt it necessary to cut off contact, and she thought I was contacting her to tell her off. I wasn't. I just wanted a bit of information. I ended up being her sounding wall for a while too.
I would like to help them. I can't. But I can let them talk. And I can do that without judging and without trying to offer advice, because I have none and advice isn't always what they need.
mcpon14 I wanted to say something to you when I first saw your post, but I didn't know what to say. Does that sound bad or mean? I hope not. Those things are not in my mind or heart.
I don't blame you at all for not telling people in real life. I think even opening up here was probably difficult. After all, even though most of us have never met each other, we are ka-tet.
We are ka-tet.
I don't blame you at all for not telling people in real life. I think even opening up here was probably difficult. After all, even though most of us have never met each other, we are ka-tet.
We are ka-tet.
((mcpon14))I hope you're doing well. It's good to have you here with us.
AnnaMarie says true: we are ka-tet.
Oh, it wasn't difficult telling you guys. I don't really know you guys to be honest so I just did it on a whim. You guys are really nice people, by the way. I'm glad that I found this board.
So, after certain relatives and people who have known me online for years said I was at worst showing signs of losing my mind and at best completely miserable and shouldn't be suffering the way I have for the last fifty years--the last four have been particularly unbearable as there is virtually no hope left of things going well--it was suggested I try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Even the counselor I have seen for four years didn't know of any place around offering it, or anyone who had attempted it, so apparently I am the local Rosa Parks trailblazer! I contacted the National Alliance for Mental Health, which sent a resources list and I found the only place on this side of the state offering a course. The office is now 65 miles away but they are soon moving to an office 70 miles away!
It is a seven-week course, three times per week, and of course on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--if any two days were consecutive, I might be able to stay overnight with friends in the area, but no, it will be a full round trip each time. The meetings or whatever they call the things run from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., and undoubtedly I'll need something to eat beforehand just to stay coherent for the meetings and afterwards to stay coherent on the drive home so there is gas and food to be considered as well as time and effort.
I am extremely apprehensive as, for one, it's a group thing--the counselor says she generally starts with eight and winds up with about three sticking it out, so it must be brutal. Although there IS no good time for me to spend seven weeks driving back and forth, they WOULD start the day before Halloween--not only when doing a Halloween display was one of the few activities to which I was looking forward--so now it's gotta all be thrown together fast or just forget it like I had to do last Christmas--but when we are finally LITERALLY getting the first good weather ALL YEAR not occurring when I had to rush to a baptism, a graduation, a wedding, or a funeral! (The good weather was very maliciously parceled out when I had other obligations and shut off when I did have time to work. If anyone else gets born, graduates, marries, or dies, in the next year or two, I will cheerfully strangle them.) It's pretty hopeless at this point as I'm trying to catch up with stuff in the yard which should have been done over the last three years when I had to deal with the illness and death of my wonderful longtime handyman, a broken leg, and another handyman ripping us off for many thousands. I literally CAN'T do everything all at once myself, my mom can't do any (though I told her not to, and tried to hire someone else, he did not do a very good job so she tried when I was gone to the graduation and landed in the hospital on Mother's Day), and can't hire any help. MY LAST CHANCE outside before being cooped up all winter with an also-impossible load of projects was for what I could do during some decent fall weather, and now I am to be robbed of that, but I have to go through with it, even on the off-chance that it will help me in the least to be miserable to a more bearable degree. I am literally in the worst shape I've been in for at least 35 years or longer--can't sit still to read a book or concentrate on what I'm reading if I try! I am so wracked with guilt over not becoming a bestselling author, I feel I don't deserve to read and even if I try it is a terrific effort. I can watch movies and TV sometimes but don't enjoy music or anything as I should. Plus the yard work is useless anyway as someone will find a way to prevent or undo anything I accomplish there as well.
What it comes down to is my situation is utterly and completely hopeless and I either have to find some way to change that, or learn to live with it. If I could have been able to either do something outstanding or pass myself off as normal and slide by with that I'd have done either years ago, but every attempt went horribly wrong and then I was blamed for deliberately screwing up when I felt bad enough. It seems to be some people's stated purpose to see to it that I feel well and truly properly bad. I am so upset that they feel that is necessary, it does make me feel bad. If I call attention to my condition, it merely annoys family members. It's not so much that they won't do anything, as that there is no way they can do enough to really fix the problems. It's like I have slipped off a precipice and am hanging by a rope, my close family members can't hold me up, I can't pull myself up, they have said they'll cut me loose (though so far they haven't) and if I cut myself loose, even if I live, which I won't, they will hate me, and if I die they will also hate me plus I'll be dead. If this stupid program doesn't work I shall be forced to resort to heavy drugs because NO ONE CAN HELP ME, or show me ANY MEANS by which I can help myself! (Over the years I was handed a list of impossible conditions to fulfill. This caused me a lot of stress, but not too much, because my life was all about proving wrong those who had written me off as a loser. If you see the movie Rocky--I had to see it twice in the theater as the ending does not make it all that clear to the casual viewer--it is not about winning but simply about your concept of yourself from seeing things through. Once I saw that movie, my mind was made up, I was going to prove these jokers wrong or perish in the attempt. The last several years it's more like, the very thought of the attempt is so exhausting I would mostly rather just die and get it over with than go through all this and still fail!) So I hope the program can successfully brainwash me into some other thinking. I've always tried to be realistic, but now I would almost rather be happy and wrong in a fool's paradise than to endure any more of this!
It is a seven-week course, three times per week, and of course on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--if any two days were consecutive, I might be able to stay overnight with friends in the area, but no, it will be a full round trip each time. The meetings or whatever they call the things run from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., and undoubtedly I'll need something to eat beforehand just to stay coherent for the meetings and afterwards to stay coherent on the drive home so there is gas and food to be considered as well as time and effort.
I am extremely apprehensive as, for one, it's a group thing--the counselor says she generally starts with eight and winds up with about three sticking it out, so it must be brutal. Although there IS no good time for me to spend seven weeks driving back and forth, they WOULD start the day before Halloween--not only when doing a Halloween display was one of the few activities to which I was looking forward--so now it's gotta all be thrown together fast or just forget it like I had to do last Christmas--but when we are finally LITERALLY getting the first good weather ALL YEAR not occurring when I had to rush to a baptism, a graduation, a wedding, or a funeral! (The good weather was very maliciously parceled out when I had other obligations and shut off when I did have time to work. If anyone else gets born, graduates, marries, or dies, in the next year or two, I will cheerfully strangle them.) It's pretty hopeless at this point as I'm trying to catch up with stuff in the yard which should have been done over the last three years when I had to deal with the illness and death of my wonderful longtime handyman, a broken leg, and another handyman ripping us off for many thousands. I literally CAN'T do everything all at once myself, my mom can't do any (though I told her not to, and tried to hire someone else, he did not do a very good job so she tried when I was gone to the graduation and landed in the hospital on Mother's Day), and can't hire any help. MY LAST CHANCE outside before being cooped up all winter with an also-impossible load of projects was for what I could do during some decent fall weather, and now I am to be robbed of that, but I have to go through with it, even on the off-chance that it will help me in the least to be miserable to a more bearable degree. I am literally in the worst shape I've been in for at least 35 years or longer--can't sit still to read a book or concentrate on what I'm reading if I try! I am so wracked with guilt over not becoming a bestselling author, I feel I don't deserve to read and even if I try it is a terrific effort. I can watch movies and TV sometimes but don't enjoy music or anything as I should. Plus the yard work is useless anyway as someone will find a way to prevent or undo anything I accomplish there as well.
What it comes down to is my situation is utterly and completely hopeless and I either have to find some way to change that, or learn to live with it. If I could have been able to either do something outstanding or pass myself off as normal and slide by with that I'd have done either years ago, but every attempt went horribly wrong and then I was blamed for deliberately screwing up when I felt bad enough. It seems to be some people's stated purpose to see to it that I feel well and truly properly bad. I am so upset that they feel that is necessary, it does make me feel bad. If I call attention to my condition, it merely annoys family members. It's not so much that they won't do anything, as that there is no way they can do enough to really fix the problems. It's like I have slipped off a precipice and am hanging by a rope, my close family members can't hold me up, I can't pull myself up, they have said they'll cut me loose (though so far they haven't) and if I cut myself loose, even if I live, which I won't, they will hate me, and if I die they will also hate me plus I'll be dead. If this stupid program doesn't work I shall be forced to resort to heavy drugs because NO ONE CAN HELP ME, or show me ANY MEANS by which I can help myself! (Over the years I was handed a list of impossible conditions to fulfill. This caused me a lot of stress, but not too much, because my life was all about proving wrong those who had written me off as a loser. If you see the movie Rocky--I had to see it twice in the theater as the ending does not make it all that clear to the casual viewer--it is not about winning but simply about your concept of yourself from seeing things through. Once I saw that movie, my mind was made up, I was going to prove these jokers wrong or perish in the attempt. The last several years it's more like, the very thought of the attempt is so exhausting I would mostly rather just die and get it over with than go through all this and still fail!) So I hope the program can successfully brainwash me into some other thinking. I've always tried to be realistic, but now I would almost rather be happy and wrong in a fool's paradise than to endure any more of this!
I hope you can attend the program, Cori, because it might give you the tools you need to be happier in your life and the skills required to have all of the unimportant stresses in life... just be background noise.
Best of luck, please keep us posted.