Everyminute.org

I have had the honor of meeting Michele through the NAMI Signature program, In Our Own Voice that I help train. She has personal insight about recovery and what it takes to get there.

I would love the opportunity to hear your experiences of survival. We will also keep these stories available on our resources page for people to see the courage and struggles that could be alleviated with proper treatment planning and encourage others to keep in the fight.

As you can see from her story, this is an illness that affects families for generations, and can end in tragedy. I have to ask, can we afford to ignore this problem? Can we afford to continue just treating this illness' symptoms without a proper baseline to work from other than dialogue? Support, education and patience will always be a major component of our mental health, but we also need answers as a baseline start with. We need concrete solutions for our ourselves and future generations, for our children. Here is Michele's story:

"I have been affected by mental illness my entire life. My grandmother, my mother, myself, and my son all have bipolar disorder. In addition, I have been diagnosed with several other mental illnesses, beginning at age 16. I have been institutionalized 5 times, have had numerous suicide attempts, a drug overdose, have survived several abusive relationships and multiple marriages, have been homeless, and have had to go through two rounds of shock treatments, all due of mental illness.

I had a younger sister who also suffered from mental illness, and she committed suicide at the age of 44. I am grateful to have found your website, and support your efforts to get the word out that we need more help from the government, more research, more education, more and better treatment, and more people to be aware of this problem and to join in the effort to help people with mental illness… so that no one else has to suffer like I have had to… so that no one else has to commit suicide like my sister did.

I'm one of the lucky ones. I have survived. Too many others (like my sister) have not."

Michele Sexton

I would also encourage you to check out some of her work on Bipolar Survivor.

- Michael Corbin