Okay so after writing a bit about my own Journey with our father and getting a reasonable amount of feedback it has brought something up…. you see I’ve always wanted to write a book for families living through the struggles of a family member or friend with Mental health issues…. and as part of the book I would love others to share a story or two (it can be anonymous) of their own journey…. it can be funny or emotional…. the point is to share with others who can reflect on and know that they are not alone, that you can’t ‘fix’ things, maybe have a laugh or two and know that the struggle is real.

You can share a story that stands out in your mind… for example…

Around 8 years ago I was working in my hairdressing salon and I received one of the Common phone calls threatening suicide …. dad was going to hang himself…. he had been on a high for some time so we knew it was coming….

So I drove to Hamilton and the CAT (mental health services) team were going to meet me at his house, we got there and he was no where to be found… eventually he went back home… we walked into his front door and ALL of his walls were covered in layers of News paper clippings, he was convinced that the government were after him…. some of the clippings were nailed to the wall because you know he’d run out of staples lol…. this day he wouldn’t talk to anyone, he would only write…. when we went into his room his bed and surroundings were again covered in newspaper clippings… some in ziplock bags some just piled every where and because he would only communicate by writing you can imagine it took a wee while to get anything out of him….

Eventually he feel asleep and when he woke up he was hellucinating and thought that the guy was his younger brother that sadly passed away when dad was a teen…. we had two options ….either he signed himself to go with the CAT team to Henery Benit (a facility to help people get well) or I had to sign papers to have him committed ….. luckily he went easily and (remember he is still not talking to anyone) so we get to the clinic and he handed the physiologist a ten page letter of his thoughts on all of his scrambled opinions and the doctor turned to me  laughed and said “I agree with most of this “ OMG I could of punched him!

So the point is to share stories and let others know we are in this together! Look it may take years to write okay, I have no idea of the process, but if you know anyone who would love to share a story or two please share this with them and either write your email address in comments below or email me on indieandmae@gmail.com…. this can be healing for all of us….

sending the biggest smiles

Love Nikki xxx