Wiit & Wisdom Tees Blog

02/12/24

Dare to be different

I am thinking this ain’t the usual place for a Mental blog. But then I don’t stick to norms! Dare to be different is me, while in many circumstances I could be quite similar to you. Read somewhere one way to fly your website high into the world’s view is to make mention regularly mental health or illness or anything associated, so ye all out there no what I am raving on about. And allegedly leverage in the new world order, can be gained by aligning with influencers. But let that potentiality arise at a later date, when I understand the song they all sing on mental health awareness and advocacy. I want to gain a foot hold into this world of psychiatry before i get clever and align with mental health influencers and clever with building and managing this site!

Yep, mental health or more accurately mental illness is significant point of topic in my life. Not as a Dr in any description, but more at the breaking rocks level. Talking consumer and carer level. This website will give you insight and tee shirts, facts and threads, informed and original in any order you choose. Join me in my world of mental health advocacy, to develop insight, empowerment, understanding and access original wearable art to compliment any outfit for our summer down-under! Be bold and brave, what’s a few minutes from your day! Read on! er 2024

09/12/24

Short But Effective

Mental illness to the brain is equivalent to a blocked artery to the heart. There is a cause and effect! If your diet is poor, you smoke and/or your genetics suck, heart disease is a likely gimme!

Did you know that unresolved childhood trauma (physical, emotional, social, sexual) can lead to excessive stress, anxiety, mood or personality disorders; behavioral issues or behavioral immaturity and/or an inability to deal with conflict or confrontation? All good reasons to protect our children, they depend on us! Any abuse can change the trajectory of that child’s life, leading them down a path of destructive, delinquent behaviors and a lifetime of grief!

16/12/24

Thanks for the Therapy & Love

I draw some insight for this website from the internet but most significantly from an experiential point of view. One could say mental health/illness is part of my DNA. I gave the entirety of my working life to mental health in one area or another and then my body gave in to bipolar disorder, PTSD, post natal depression & psychosis and borderline personality disorder. This ‘heinz’ variety of diagnosis in the latter decades of my life until now, culminated from a childhood of physical, emotional & sexual abuse. Am I qualified to offer you this website. I believe so! The best news is the only diagnosis I have now is bipolar disorder, though it no longer defines me. With extensive long term talk therapy and ongoing regime of medication i say with honesty, I am finally fulfilling the best years of my life.

Please consider your options with an open mind, strength of character and determination of resolution! THERE IS ALWAYS A POSITIVE OPTION and THOUGH the ROAD is LONG, POSITIVE OUTCOMES ARE WAITING!

To the friends who gave up on me, you are missing the best years!

I dedicate this site to Jo-Anne and Lorri! The former for the therapy journey to sanity and clarity And Lorri for our journey through life. The journey fell shorter than we wanted, but our friendship was no less impactful. I am the Wiit, to your Wisdom I carry you on my shoulder forever!

19/12/24

Trample Fear & Misunderstanding

Mental health is a complex subject. There are so many trajectories of conversation I could follow, but which rabbit hole suits this community? Where does one start when aiming to enlighten my mental health mutterers.

Maybe stigma? Stigma alone has a myriad rabbit warrens to run through! Bias against mental illness remains endemic in our society. People shunned because their actions & behavior do not fil societies ‘peg hole’ of expectation! Beware the individual stepping over unseen ‘demons” on the footpath or that person talking out loud to someone when nobody is in their midst. Or that person who refuses to eat because they believe the food is poisoned, or they claim to be receiving messages from the TV, radio or even telepathically. How many people would enquire if these unfortunates needed assistance? Not many given the fear of the person and their affliction. It is without any doubt about fear and misunderstanding! Fear due to a lack of understanding of mental illness and how best to deal with one who is struggling mentally. But even the person with a well managed mental health condition engenders fear, despite, the lack of a presentation of overt acute or chronic symptomatology. How many would be employed or be given a lease on a property if they made full disclosure? Imagine living life under scrutiny because of a mental illness diagnosis. Conversely, consider self imposed stigma. The individual that gives the current climate of attitude toward the mentally unwell and talks up the poor perception of mental health and stigmatizes himself or herself believing they themselves are sub human because of a adverse mental health diagnosis.

I imposed a stigma upon myself when i had a psychotic break some years previously! My self talk went like this, “how can i be mentally unwell when i have worked my life as a carer in the field”? Like I had an immunity or some such. That is ‘crazy’ concept of course. It is like the heart specialist saying he will never require medical attention for his heart or associated structures; or the vet that says his own animals will never get sick. Ludicrous thinking.

So this has covered stigma in mental health, but we humans are cruel beings and have a habit of stigmatizing other humans in so many other aspects of life! I be thinking, race, religious beliefs, age, socio-economic factors, weight, disabilities etc And If I am to be honest, I have silent stigmas that i rally against constantly, ? a legacy of bigoted parental and family influence that has emanated from childhood for many of us! But I accept the damage inflicted when spoken. So I remain silent and aim to be without judgement! Let’s keep on evolving and develop positivity in our lives!

21/12/24

Break from Reality - My Journey

As we slide quickly through the days to the end of 2024 I pause during this day to acknowledge my Christmas baby, born today, 24 years ago. My final work of art. And today especially, I pause to bring events though those years into focus. So much joy with a little sadness. Our journey together marred by mental illness commenced in a time that she will not remember. Psychosis interrupted our most basic but cherished bond. Breastfeeding. One night she was, the next she wasn’t. Though mental illness rendered me unable to rue this separation until later. So unwell was i that my brain stopped thinking rationally and creating memories, I survived on auto pilot. Despite being wrenched from my breast @ around 17 months, this child was likely the least affected by my first incarceration into a mental health facility. But they all benefited. I earned this admission through my disclosure to annihilate myself and my precious children. This being the most logical course of action in my ‘crazy messed up mind’ at that point in time. So logical I mentioned my plan to a medical practitioner. So methodically planned it earned an 8-10 week stint in a psych facility, where the unravelling of my mind commenced. And what a f…..g journey we have been on since. More changes in the past 24 years than in the whole of the previous 40, except my initial 5 years. Regrets are many regarding not raising my babies, but compared to the potentiality, their lives have been exceptional. The alternative is unthinkable. Family annihilation is so goddam tragic and happens way too often under many different circumstances! I did not attend that doctors appointment to disclose my abhorent plan it was a sliding door moment! I considered my plan the most logical exercise ever. To rid the world of me and take the children to avoid the ramifications for them in not having a mother. Their father could move on and have another wife and children, I reasoned. Ultimately I reluctantly relinquished custody to their father for them to survive and thrive in an environment largely and directly unaffected by issues of significant mental illness. I could not wrangle my own life and could not contemplate wrangling parenthood in any way shape or form. My sanity or lack of it impacted me so significantly that all aspects and feelings of mothering evaporated. I was a single entity temporarily without offspring. I had nothing in the tank, I was just maintaining the basics of life! I felt completely and wholly detached from my children and myself, though I otherwise loved them so deeply and completely. I was bereft of humanity or maternal feelings and was just surviving!