From Introvert to Advocate by VJ Young

Anyone that has experienced mental illness could write a book listing all their problems and interactions with society. I wish everyone could experience severe mental illness for a week. If that were the case, people's attitude toward the mentally ill would be very different from what it is now.

I am absolutely amazed at how little we know about brain illnesses and at the same time how we have developed medications that are very helpful in most of the cases. However, our legal and health systems often prevent people experiencing mental illness from accessing these medications because society does not understand the issues.

Fortunately for me, I accepted that I needed to routinely take medication even though the side effects where horrendous. For three years, I could not feel happy, sad or any other emotion. I was a zombie! Then I went to bed one evening and the next morning when I awoke, I new immediately that something had changed. I had feelings!

It was kind of scary and I and my wife immediately went to see my psychiatrist. However, he could not find anything wrong and fortunately for me and my family, I have been relatively normal except for the fact I am much more out going now than I was before. That helps me when I advocate for the mentally ill.

The academic world has always been a bit of a struggle for me. My parents enrolled me in the first grade when I was not quite 6 years old. As it turned out I was not ready for it.

My first grade teacher physical abused me which did not encourage me to learn anything from her. I failed the second grade and fourth grade. The teachers often had me write something over and over on the black board which was very humiliating. I do not remember what they were asking me to write but I felt like I was spelling "I am a dumb person". This had an impact on me until I was 40 years old.

Fortunately, when I entered the fifth grade I was lucky enough to have a very good teacher that respected all her students and treated me well. I had also put on a growth spurt which allowed me to stand up to the bulling that young children often inflict on other students.

In the fifth grade I learned that I did have some sort of learning disability regarding reading and writing. When given a few words to learn how to spell for the next day, I could ace that. However, when tested on all the words a week later, I failed most of them. In all learning, memory is crucial and it seems I have some sort of memory and visualization problem with letters and words.

I was an average student in high school and my short stint at a 4 year college was a total academic disaster and a more practical vocational education was in my future.

I ended up making a good living as an aircraft mechanic and no one in the industry ever criticized my lack of reading, writing or speaking abilities. It was interesting to see some college graduates hire on as aircraft cleaners because they could not find a better job.

When computers came out with word check my world changed and I began communicating by the written word. Thank god for computers and my wife who often proofs what I write. It helps me advocate for a better world.

I admit I am not much of an admirer of artistic work. Whatever I do needs to have a perceived practical side.

My wife is an avid quilter. She takes perfectly good material and cuts it up into small pieces, then sews it all back together in various artistic patterns. This activity takes lots of time and adds much expense to an item that covers you while you sleep.

The good news is she loves doing it and others give her much appreciated complements. We delivered this quilt to my wife's nephew at his wedding in Oregon. The message was "Quilters make warmer lovers" especially if thy are happy! I advocate for helping people feel good about themselves and their accomplishments.

Lots of people have trouble controlling their weight. Why is this? What can they do to address the problem?

While I am no expert on this subject, I have managed to shed 40 pounds and keep it off many years. It has helped me overcome some health problems I was having and may have saved my life.

In hopes that it may help others, I will give some thoughts and observations I have experienced over time. Genetically, some people are more prone to weight problems than others. I do not have that problem, but will put on weigh if I do not stay physically active.

For all people, there are 2 things they can control regarding their weight. We all know what the 2 are, calories ingested and calories worked off, or burnt as some say.

My observation is that people may know that and they may be aware that they have a problem but they are not willing to publicly admit it and seek help in solving the problem. Why this is I can only guess. They are embarrassed, ashamed or do not believe they can succeed in controlling the problem. For me the first step was admitting I had a problem and then seeking help.

There are many weight control programs out there and I believe most of them will help people lose weight, if the person is COMMITTED to it. I chose Weight Watchers.

My observation at WW was that it was a very practical program that worked if a person was committed to implementing it. However, a large percentage of the attendees were there for the social contact more than they were committed to following the program.

I knew that controlling my weight meant permanently changing some of my eating habits and making sure I kept up some sort of physical activity. I also knew I could not keep up the counting of points or calories for the rest of my life. So I committed to strictly following the program until I reached goal and maintain goal or begin counting again.

In the beginning, the hardest thing to do was engage my brain before placing food in my mouth and on reaching goal, changing my actions depending on how much I weigh each morning. It has worked for me! Wahooo! I like advocating for people that work at controlling their weight.