Tag Archives: mental health

Mental Health – a personal struggle.

I have been struggling for a while.  It seems like some days are very dark. Snappy and snarky comebacks are my friend regardless of the context of the conversation.  So I approached my doctor about it. I talked to her about: Insomnia – the lack of ability to sleep. Loneliness. – feeling alone, yet needing to be alone and preferring the isolation that comes with being a disabled stay-at-home dad even though I spend a lot of time advocating for others and supporting families. Anxiety. – I don’t know how to describe the overwhelming panic, the racing heart, the rapid thoughts and their impact on life. Fear. – of my son. and that he might attack me with a shovel again. Memory issues. – forgetting things, remembering things that didn’t happen…  conversation issues. So I am not crazy. Not in the traditional sense.  I underwent a battery of tests with

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Houdini Part V. – a Six Year Update

Hard to believe it has been six years since I wrote the Houdini/Ronald McDonald posts. You can find the first in the series here.  By and large I have been living life. In fact, most of the last six years are documented within the pages of this site. There has been a lot of advocacy work. Learning new things, adapting our parenting style to our sons needs. But life does move on. Houdini – aka the birth father In the time that has passed, we have lost the birth father.  He died alone. There was no obituary. There was no funeral. It is a sad end to a life. Every life deserves to be celebrated. He was such a “bad” man that no one in the family even knew he died. He has been gone almost 18 months now, and I realize that I have no feelings one way or

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North Dakota Mental Health Crisis

I am part of the Mental Health Advocacy Network in North Dakota.  It is a coalition of advocates and agencies that is working to change the way mental health is viewed.  To erase the stigma that comes with being mentally ill. In this video, it so eerily describes things that mirror what has happened in our family.  It could very easily be David’s mother or myself in the role of parent, and David could easily be Garrett.  These are real people telling their stories. North Dakota sponsored an interim study of the mental health study and that report was delivered in 2014.  Known as the Schulte Report, it spoke volumes about the crisis in services here.  Little has been done to resolve the crisis.  We continue to see services cut.  We continue to have to fight for care.  Parents continue to struggle to help their children.  People with mental illness

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