Weave Through Homespun
Jo is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic. She is busy working on breaking down the stereotypes associated with mental illness, advocating for better mental health coverage and fighting for the rights of those who suffer from mental illness. Leave your comments on mental illness for an on-going dialogue.
Homespun Weavings
Here's a poem I wrote several months ago while my partner was in the middle of the second struggle with Depression and Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT). I was grappling with a myriad of emotions- anger, frustration, fear, questioning. If you've ever delt with depression or walked with a loved one who suffers from this horrible, yet curable, disease I'm sure you can relate.
Cause you can't put it in a suitcase and send it off,
anymore than you can wrap it up and mail it to the ends of the earth,
anymore than you can expect an instant cure from the doctors.
So, you sit and watch it creep into the one you love
creep so slowly you hardly notice-
It's not until you realize your brain is replaying the same old guessing games-
I know it's nothing she ate, it's not the weather is it? radon in the house?
and if you're not careful you'll get caught up in the vicious psychosis.
Quick, did you catch yourself in time?
Why didn't she?
It's here again and you can't pack it away in a suitcase and put it in the shed.
So you slip into autopilot, mark the days by the appropriate treatment number
and wait for the magic DAY OF RECOVERY...ending of the Electro Convulsive Treatment
AND the beginning of the next countdown...to normalcy. (MW 11-11-97)
Links worth checking out...
Angelfire - Easiest Free Home Pages
CommunityNet-I&R and more for So. MN
FACES-Family Action Collaborative,Olmsted County MN
Make the Peace Initiative
Girls Can Be Anything...except Roosters
Wearable Mamas! What the hippest mamas are wearin'!
Inspire Me Promotions Web Site
Libby Roderick's (Singer Extraordinaire) Web Site
Cosmic Woman Site