Who do you think of?

When you think of mental illness and suicide who do you think of?  The homeless man on the side of the road begging for money, the child at school in the "special" classes, a serial killer, someone locked up in an institution?  Or like me do you think of mental illness and think of yourself.  A regular, everyday person who was randomly chosen by fate to endure and live with depression, OCD, and anxiety.  Someone like my friends husband who was a doctor, the teenager down the street who walks past my house to school everyday, Virginia Woolf and other famous people. For no one is immune.

The problem is, there is no defined picture of who mental illness chooses to befriend. At random it wheels it's powers and stalks out it's victims. It attacks in the middle of the night, in school, at work, at home. It leaves in it's wake a miserable mess of emotion, and honestly, ignorance. Ignorance in those who are it's victims and ignorance in those who it has chosen not to bother. 

So I am standing up to it. I am not backing down. I am facing it head on. I am on a mission to educate and eradicate people's misnomers about mental illness and suicide. And promote compassion for a world filled with people who suffer in it's deepest depths. I want to promote getting well, seeking out help and reaching out. And not just to those who suffer, but to everyone.

So please join me on this journey, take a minute to expand your mind. Take a minute to listen....

I want to answer all the questions I have in my own mind...
Why do people suffer from mental illness?
What are exactly all the types of mental illnesses?
Who may be more susceptible to mental illness and suicide?
Do support groups help?
Does therapy help?
Do meds help?
Why are people so intolerant of certain illnesses?
Who, What, Why, Where and When???...
I want to discover...I want to learn....