My name is Mon­ty Price. I like music, and like to make sure I have free time from school. Also, I like to take pic­tures and post them on Face­book. I hope every­one is doing fine today.
NAMI has become the nation’s voice on men­tal health and was found­ed in 1979. NAMI pro­vides pro­grams for the men­tal­ly ill and in Lex­ing­ton con­sumers can go to the Par­tic­i­pa­tion Sta­tion. Also, NAMI pro­vides pro­grams to help fam­i­lies deal with their loved ones that have
a men­tal ill­ness.

Dark Days
When I was at the age of 26 years my symp­toms of men­tal ill­ness caused many prob­lems for me. I start­ed to have emo­tion­al prob­lems for the first time and was hos­pi­tal­ized in Texas. Hav­ing emo­tion­al prob­lems was like not under­stand­ing my sit­u­a­tion and being con­fused. One of my dark­est moments was when I was hav­ing a lot of fear and feel­ing angry about life. More­over, not get­ting along with fam­i­ly and friends was caus­ing prob­lems for me in my life. Also, not being able to hold a job and hav­ing deal­ings with the police. If you can imag­ine hav­ing a void in your life and nowhere to go. Fur­ther­more, not being able to func­tion in soci­ety was a prob­lem for me. These are some of the feel­ings I was expe­ri­enc­ing at my first hos­pi­tal­iza­tion and more dis­tress as well.

Accep­tance
Hav­ing accep­tance of my men­tal ill­ness means me tak­ing charge of my life and mov­ing for­ward is a big part of my recov­ery. Then being respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing my men­tal ill­ness and be part of my recov­ery with, fam­i­ly friends, myself and my health care providers in my recov­ery process. I start­ed to have accep­tance of my men­tal ill­ness after giv­ing myself cred­it of
my strengths and weak­ness­es and accept­ing my lim­i­ta­tions. Also, believ­ing that I have some­thing to offer in soci­ety and doing pos­i­tive healthy things in my life. In the past, I have had trou­ble accept­ing my men­tal ill­ness and hold­ing a job. How­ev­er, due to my not giv­ing up in life has been a pos­i­tive thing for me. This has helped me to make a lot of progress in my life. In my jour­ney as a Peer Sup­port Spe­cial­ist and being involved with NAMI has helped me with accep­tance. Also, hav­ing fam­i­ly, friends, and being a stu­dent has very much so has helped me with the accep­tance of men­tal ill­ness. Then stay­ing in treat­ment and tak­ing my med­ica­tions has helped me with my Accep­tance of myself.

Treat­ment
Fur­ther­more, some­times I write things down to help my doc­tor bet­ter under­stand me dur­ing our ses­sions. This helps me be part of my treat­ment. I try to under­stand my ear­ly warn­ing signs and trig­gers. I have it writ­ten down, in order to help me under­stand my symp­toms bet­ter. It is impor­tant for me to have a treat­ment plan for me and know what to work on in my wellness.

This helps both me and my doc­tor. Also, it is impor­tant for me to be med­ica­tion com­pli­ant and stay in my treat­ment, in order to stay well. Fur­ther­more, it is a good idea to have a good sup­port sys­tem to help man­age your symp­toms and peo­ple who can help you with moral sup­port.
In my life, in order to stay sta­ble, it helps me to stay with my treat­ment plan. Also, I make sure to get enough sleep and eat healthy, plus exer­cise. I want to make sure to keep a bal­ance in my life and have activ­i­ties to do dur­ing the week. Basi­cal­ly, I mon­i­tor myself and let my health care
providers know when I am hav­ing prob­lems.

Cop­ing Skills
When you are hav­ing a dif­fi­cult time it is good to make sure you eat right and get the prop­er rest. Basi­cal­ly, pull some­thing out of your tool­box to help you cope bet­ter, in order to stay well. This helps you cope bet­ter when you are hav­ing a bad day. It is very impor­tant for me to use cop­ing skills that can help me get through a tough day. One cop­ing skill I use is to eat health­ily and get the prop­er exer­cise. Also, this helps me with hav­ing a struc­ture and being part of my rou­tine in stay­ing sta­ble. Anoth­er thing that helps me to cope with my ill­ness is hav­ing a good sup­port sys­tem. Also, it is a good idea in hav­ing some­one who you can trust to talk with when you are going through a dif­fi­cult time. Also, it helps to have insight into your men­tal ill­ness when you are hav­ing symp­toms. Hav­ing good cop­ing skills for me means I have a plan in man­ag­ing my men­tal ill­ness. Fur­ther­more, I try to have a good home envi­ron­ment by keep­ing my apart­ment clean and neat. There are oth­er cop­ing skills that I use as well. You can take a hot show­er, lis­ten to music, watch tele­vi­sion, and keep a bal­ance with your sched­ule dur­ing the week. Also, take plen­ty of breaks when you are doing your school assign­ments and do not pro­cras­ti­nate in get­ting your home­work done. In addi­tion, I make sure to have my bed made every morn­ing. And make sure that my linens and blan­kets are neat and clean. Also, it is good for me to keep a light on when I am sleep­ing to help me feel safe dur­ing the night. I use cop­ing skills to real­i­ty check, which helps me under­stand real­i­ty bet­ter. Basi­cal­ly, by using cop­ing skills it helps me to bet­ter prob­lem solve, which helps me to have a health­i­er mind under stress.

Suc­cess­es, Hope, Dreams
Suc­cess means to me that you are doing what you are sup­posed to be doing with your life. Then by know­ing that Hope is the “cor­ner­stone of recov­ery” and that you can believe in your­self in hav­ing suc­cess with your life can be depart­men­tal. Basi­cal­ly, your suc­cess and dreams take on many dif­fer­ent direc­tions to arrive at your des­ti­na­tion. Suc­cess means me build­ing upon my strengths and mov­ing for­ward in my life. Hope means to me that you believe in your­self and feel­ing pos­i­tive nev­er accept­ing defeat. More­over, fol­low­ing my Dreams means that my goals are being met and that I am liv­ing life to the fullest. The most impor­tant thing for me is to get up in the morn­ing and have a struc­tured week. Some­times get­ting up in the morn­ing is most dif­fi­cult for me. When this hap­pens I don’t have a very pro­duc­tive day and fall apart. Basi­cal­ly, mak­ing sure I get up in the morn­ing is impor­tant to my men­tal health. More­over, it is impor­tant to man­age my finances, so I won’t end up home­less. Then not cause myself to have a finan­cial cri­sis. Fur­ther­more, by man­ag­ing my finances well decreas­es my stress lev­el. Also, being a stu­dent at Blue­grass Com­mu­ni­ty and Tech­ni­cal Col­lege is impor­tant to me. This helps me to learn mar­ketable skills and feel good about myself. Col­lege is very impor­tant to me because I
can be around oth­er stu­dents, which helps me from being iso­lat­ed. Fur­ther­more, this helps me stay busy and pro­duc­tive dur­ing the week. Also, it is ben­e­fi­cial for me to be at my sup­port group meet­ings at NAMI, which is a part of my sup­port sys­tem. I like facil­i­tat­ing groups and mak­ing friends at the Par­tic­i­pa­tion Sta­tion. Basi­cal­ly, suc­cess­es hope, and dreams are very impor­tant to me because it helps me to stay well. Basi­cal­ly, suc­cess­es, hope, and dreams mean build­ing upon your strength and mov­ing for­ward in get­ting on with your life. Last, I have tal­ents, gifts, and strengths and doing things that are healthy, which helps me stay well.

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