May 8, 2008 issue
Learn About Living with Mental Illness May 17
Story by Corinne Saunders
“One out of every four families has a family member with mental illness [although] you wouldn’t know it because [mental illness] is pretty much kept under wraps,” said Francine Barr, director of High Country National Alliance on Mental Illness.
In observance of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and New River Behavioral Healthcare will present In Our Own Voice: Living With Mental Illness at the Watauga County Public Library at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, May 17.
This program is designed to “get more people talking about [mental illness] so it’s not this big stigma,” Barr said.
Gabrielle Padgham and Steve Moeller will speak about living with mental illness at the program.
“People should come out if they want to know the true face of mental illness instead of the highly publicized, sensationalized [portrayal],” said Padgham, High Country NAMI publicity chair and board of directors member.
“It’s an interactive presentation and, in between, we’ll talk about how the segments relate to our own lives,” Padgham said.
The five segments of the NAMI video include Dark Days, Acceptance, Coping, Treatment and Successes and Hopes and Dreams.
The program “is very educational” and “puts a face on mental illness to eliminate the stigma attached to mental illness,” Padgham said. “Most of the time the media portrays the mentally ill as psychotic killers when we’re more likely to be victims of a violent crime rather than perpetrators.”
Mentally ill people who commit violent acts are usually not on treatment, Padgham added.
Padgham has been a speaker at NAMI programs for almost four years, helping people “become more aware of what it is to have mental illness.”
“We’re normal people with a higher hurdle to jump than some. You can know someone with mental illness and not even know [they have mental illness]; we don’t have big signs on our head that say ‘mentally ill,’” Padgham said, adding that many famous people such as Abraham Lincoln, Vincent van Gogh, rock stars and movie stars have had mental illness.
“It’s more prevalent than people would imagine,” Padgham said.
Those who live with mental illness often face stigmas in the community but also frequently deal with inaccurate treatment. “I was misdiagnosed a lot and mis-medicated,” Padgham said, adding that this led to subsequent hospital visits. “Psychiatry is not an exact science.”
Padgham believed she was working with the CIA or FBI to stop world conspiracy for about 9 years. During this time, the delusions would sometimes go away for a while, but the times of clarity would always be followed by a relapse.
“[During] my last hospital visit, I realized that wasn’t really reality, and this time I’m going to make sure it doesn’t come back,” Padgham said. “My delusions are still there on the back burner, but I don’t pay them any heed anymore.”
With medication and treatment, it’s possible to control mental illness and to get better, Padgham said, adding, “it’s like alcoholism; it never truly goes away but you can lead a normal life.”
Paying for treatment for mental illness has been difficult in the past, but NAMI was instrumental in the passage of the parity bill last September, Barr said. “Up until then, mental illness was treated differently than physical illness,” she said, adding that the bill equalized treatment.
NAMI’s advocacy has given people with mental illness the opportunity for more treatment, but recovery depends on the individual.
“You have to be an active participant in recovery [and] have to take the necessary steps to get better,” Padgham said. “If you don’t want to get better, you won’t get better.”
Padgham compared her schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, to the mental illness featured in the film A Beautiful Mind.
She struggles with math but excels at working with computers; her hopes for the future include finding a job possibly building and fixing computers, finishing her associate’s degree in information systems and maybe pursuing a music degree at ASU, she said. Padgham plays blues guitar and sings and would also like to find other musicians, form a band and play around town.
Padgham was also diagnosed with gender identity disorder. “I always felt I should have been a girl or woman,” she said. “I finally got the courage to do something about it two and a half or three years ago. I used to have severe and recurrent depression, but the minute I started being Gabrielle, it went away.”
Padgham’s 16-year-old daughter and ex-wife live in Mountain City, Tenn.
“When my mom comes up to visit, she brings my daughter,” Padgham said. “My daughter accepts my mental illness, but is having a hard time accepting that I’m transgender.”
Want To Go?
Date: Saturday, May 17
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Watauga County Library
Cost: Free
Voices of Hope Benefit Dinner
The High Country National Alliance on Mental Illness third annual Voices of Hope Benefit Dinner will be held Saturday, May 31, at the Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, located at 381 E. King Street.
Tickets to the old-fashioned chicken dinner costs $12 for adults and $8 for children, and the event will also be a silent auction and rummage sale. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m., with musical entertainment beginning at 8:00 p.m. Complimentary chair massages will be available throughout the evening.
The dinner proceeds will benefit High Country NAMI’s new program that is designed to serve people diagnosed with mental illness “who don’t have private insurance or Medicaid, to give them the skills to manage the illness and offer them support groups,” said Francine Barr, director of High Country NAMI.
The program will be held at the Recovery Education Center that started in February and is still getting its feet on the ground, so proceeds will also help with the center’s startup costs, Barr said.
Big silent auction items to date include a leather sofa and a waterbed. Donations for both the silent auction and the rummage sale are currently being accepted, and NAMI will send someone to pick up large items.
For more information or to donate a large item, contact Barr at 828-262-4645 or barrm@newriver.org.
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