This is a guest column published in our local newspaper that I wrote about a National Alliance on Mental Illness program I attended 24 years ago. These educational classes made a tremendous difference in helping me cope with my husband’s illness, and now I’m co-leading the program for my local NAMI chapter. What goes around comes around…
“According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experiences a mental health condition each year. One in 25 has a serious mental illness that significantly alters their lives.
Butler County’s population is nearing 190,000, which means an estimated 7,500 Butler Countians have a serious mental health condition. My husband is one of them.
In the mid-1990s, when I worked as the Focus editor for the Butler Eagle, my husband, Steve, was diagnosed with a mental illness. Brain disorders, as they’re often called today, can cause changes in a person’s thoughts and behaviors, which is at the core of who we are and how we interact with others.
Steve’s illness—which began in his early 40s when our three children were young— altered family dynamics and disrupted our routine. Established patterns reinforced by our 20 years together began to erode, and I was at a loss as how to handle the changes in our family’s life. For years I’d thought of mental illness as a weakness, a condition a person with character could control, but Steve’s illness became part of our daily life.
During Steve’s month-long hospital stay in 1995, a nurse told me about NAMI’s Family-to-Family, a free educational program for family and friends living with a loved one’s mental illness.
I signed up for the classes, which met weekly for several months, no small commitment for a working mom with young children whose ill husband sometimes created chaos in our home.
Family-to-Family dramatically changed how I thought about mental illness. Through the years it was instrumental in helping me cope with the fallout from Steve’s illness.
During those weekly classes, I learned that mental illnesses are neurological disorders resulting from disruption in the brain’s biochemical or electrical processes. And that through careful communication and some problem-solving techniques, Steve and I could work through some of the challenges stemming from his illness. I learned about the different kinds of disorders and their treatments, the importance of self-care, and how to respond during a mental health crisis, of which there were many in our home.
With Family-to-Family, I learned that getting a correct diagnosis can be a years-long process, and I came to see the changes in Steve’s thoughts and behaviors as symptoms of an underlying medical condition, like a rising PSA number is indicative of prostate problems. In one class, where we participated in an exercise that simulated the mental experience of someone with an illness, I began to feel empathy for what my husband was going through.
Family-to-Family is an evidenced-based program supported by research showing that it significantly improves the coping and problem-solving abilities of the people closest to a person with a mental health condition. It certainly helped our family meet the challenge of living with Steve’s illness.
This month, at 6 p.m. on March 11, families and friends of the 7,500-plus Butler Countians living with a loved one’s mental illness symptoms have the opportunity to take the Family-to-Family class. NAMI Butler County is offering the program for eight consecutive Wednesdays through April 29. Classes are held at the Center for Community Resources (CCR), 212 S. South Main St., Butler.
I along with another NAMI-trained volunteer will lead the program. Family-to-Family played an important role in our family’s experience with mental illness. It could make a difference in your life too.
For more information or to register, call 724-431-0069 or email namibutler@hotmail.com. Participation is limited, and registration closes March 10.”
Linda K. Schmitmeyer, a former Butler Eagle Focus editor, is a NAMI Butler County board member. She lives in Middlesex Township and is the author of “Rambler: A Family Pushes Through the Fog of Mental Illness,” available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.
