Mental Illness Awareness Week

Although I’ve been involved in a bipolar relationship for a number of years, I’ve only recently truly embraced my situation as an opportunity to not only better myself and my marriage but to share some critical information with others that are either in a similar situation now, or will be soon and they just haven’t been formally introduced to this lifestyle.

Many other causes and initiatives I’ve been invited to participate in have either been advertised as a one-time event, an annual occasion or, and I hate to admit, has been something that I simply didn’t have any information on and didn’t pursue educating myself.  The harsh reality is this…unless you are directly affected by an otherwise well known challenge such as cancer, mental illness or other similar affliction, we tend to walk blindly past those topics that seem, too depressing.

As a bipolar supporter and one digging into an ever growing community of others that are either in my situation or closely related, I learn more and more everyday about what it means to me to be a supporter.  On one side of the sword, I feel empowered enough to assert my own authority and share as much information as I possibly can in the means to help others who either cannot yet share their own voice, or maybe offer a ray of light to those that have just been thrown into a relationship involving a mental health challenge.

On the other side of the same sword, I feel that I am in a gray area as I am also seeing more and more of the hurdles that we as supporters and sufferers are trying to jump.  What pains me most is that there are challenges sitting directly between both sides and I’m starting to see a trend where even the sufferers are resisting against the supporters.

In some previous posts, “It’s Not Your Fault” and “Bipolar: You Can’t Take it Personally”, I touched heavily on the fact that even as well educated and experienced supporters, we will never truly feel or understand what it is that our loved ones are really going through.  However, we care enough to educate ourselves, monitor and analyze to the best of our abilities and absorb as many different ideas and strategies to get as close as we can to understand because we do care and we want to offer our love and patience in an attempt to help.

In some discussions I’ve injected myself into via blogs and online forums, I feel a bit of the resistance that is so prevalent even before I hit the submit button.  Here I am, one of the ‘normies’ trying to put myself out there to the rest of the world as someone trying to understand and offer some support to those who have no clue who I am. 

Yet, all I am trying to accomplish is to offer some additional support to those that may have been shunned or pushed aside from the many others that haven’t taken the time to accept the unique differences their loved one may be experiencing.  One of the hard realizations is that, even as much as I want to help, there are many of those that have been hurt and abandoned too many times that they simply cannot trust a ‘normie’ and it pains me to see that such a gap is there that I cannot fill.

This is my first real participation attempt to support Mental Illness Awareness Week, as I simply did not know that such an awareness attempt existed.  I say this as a converter, if you will, into being a true supporter as I was one of the many that ignored my own wife’s cries for help in the past and just played it off as ‘her problem’.  Well, it took quite a bit of self-conscious thinking and soul searching to know where I wanted to be and with my passion to be a helper, I couldn’t be more proud to be the husband of a bipolar spouse and a mental illness supporter.

Please, do you part to support the Mental Illness Awareness Week and as many other causes as possible.  You may just find a new passion in life to open yourself up and offer more love to those that need it and you may also be close to one directly affected by such a disorder and you just don’t know it, yet.

With a passion to reach out and to help others, Rich opens up a direct view into the trials and tribulations that come with managing a bipolar relationship and how to use real-world techniques to aid in stability and support.

Rich Wallace

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