I went to the NAMI meeting on Wednesday, but it turned out to be a disappointment. The drive to the meeting was longer than I thought it would be and I was experiencing anxiety, worrying that the car would break down, etc... I didn't have a problem finding the meeting and there were 8-10 people there, but the president of the meeting started a DVD for us to watch that would take up the entire meeting. It was a documentary I had seen before about depression called Out Of The Shadows (which is weird because I just got a documentary on a woman with schizophrenia called Out Of The Shadow....) I excused myself early leaving my email address and name and town on a piece of paper, in case anyone wanted to get in touch with me. I would have stayed longer, but I didn't want to drive at night time. The president did manage to mention that NAMI was not looking to start a group in my county because it costs too much money. This group has one meeting once a month for an hour and a half at a time, which is not much of a support group, but maybe that will change. I'm back to my initial dilemma: no support group in my town or the surrounding towns.
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I've been preoccupied with the kittens this last week. I got them the milk replacer which has a lot more nutrients in it than the cow's cream and they seem to be enjoying it. I've set up a routine. I get up at dawn, when the kittens are waking up and let them run around the bathroom for a while. Then I feed them the milk and some wet food. When they tire out I let them rest on me and then after about an hour of all this, I put them back in the tub. I do this about 4 times a day and then let them rest through the night. They seem to be settling into the routine because they don't complain as much when I put them back in the tub. They know I'll be back in a few hours for more contact. I love the kittens, but I'm somewhat stressed out taking care of them. I need a little time to get used to the routine myself. I'm also worrying that I won't be able to go to the four day music festival in a little over two weeks. My brother relies on going each summer. It's possible that he might be able to get a friend to go with him, but I haven't broached the subject yet with him.
3 comments:
Hello Kate,
The leaders of NAMI support groups aren't paid, there's a cost involved with training people to become NAMI Connection Peer Support Group leaders. They probably don't have the money to train anyone to be a leader.
Try writing SharePosts at www.schizophreniaconnection.com and our community members will respond to you.
Best wishes,
Chris
Hi Kate,
Don't give up on a support group. In Alanon, I know you are familiar with they say to keep trying until you find the right meeting. I think Chris is giving you some good information. I have seen you grow tremendously. Look at this as a hurdle to get over. Groups are so important.
xo,
Nancy
Kate,
I don't go to my local NAMI Consumer Support Group now, but I did so in the past. I also went through NAMI's peer to peer training, and now I'm speaking as part of the CIT training, and sometimes Ivolunteer at NAMI events here, and go to the rather inactive consumer council's meetings. But, where I live, there is a pretty big chapter of NAMI, and I realize this is not the case everywhere.
Also I just wanted to say, support groups change depending on who shows up at any given time, and who is leading the group. I found that when I wanted to talk about psychosis, the NAMI consumer support group had nobody who seemed to understand what I was talking about! Everybody there, at that particular time, was dealing with depression or Bipolar Disorder, and not Schizophrenia. Or, as someone said was possible, they didn't want anybody to know they had psychotic symptoms so they would not talk about them.
There have been other times when groups helped me, but at that time, in that group, I didn't get much out of going. Now, I'm glad I stayed involved with NAMI though, because I've had many opportunities to meet other people and participate in events that raise awareness about mental illness, and I'm very interested in continuing as an advocate in this vein. So I'm glad I didn't just walk away from that group and never go back.
Perhaps you yourself could start a conversation that the other group members might not be willing or able to do themselves, about the things you really want to discuss. I don't think it's your job to run the group or anything, but groups are mostly what people make of them. I don't think it's always the person who is the "leader" who should decide what is discussed.
Also, are you still thinking about starting a group yourself? I was just curious if you were still interested in doing that, though I know it is a lot of work to do so.
I hope you won't lose heart and give up on NAMI, because it is a worthwhile organization to be part of, in my experience, though no group is perfect and neither are the people who join,
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