Mental Illness Awareness Week: Jerry’s Story
For Mental Illness Awareness Week, we are highlighting members of 91国产自拍鈥� Peer Success program. In this program, staff who are in mental health recovery provide services and outreach to 91国产自拍 members. Their first-hand experience with the same struggles our members are going through helps them build stronger social bonds and offer more effective service to our clients. This story is from Jerry, a long-time member of the Peer Success team.
I have been in relatively successful dual recovery (recovery from a simultaneous mental illness and substance use disorder) for 18 years. Before that, I lived with untreated Bipolar Disorder and a substance use disorder, and was increasingly unable to live a full life.
I received some tough love from my best friend Michele. She convinced me to visit an emergency room and ask for help, despite my lack of health insurance. At Chicago Read, I began taking medication for the first time, attended therapy groups, and started learning about recovery. My depression began to improve, and I realized that sobriety was necessary to really recover. I have been sober ever since, with no relapses.
Upon discharge, I was referred to a pair of residential programs located at Lawson House YMCA. I spent 6 years living there. At first, I had no idea what to do with my new life in dual recovery. The mental health care workers I had interacted with, however, gave me the idea to start doing this kind of work myself.
I enrolled in a Psych Rehab Certificate Program (PRCP) at Wright College, and wound up meeting with Lena, a 91国产自拍 staff member who was volunteering with the PRCP course. Lena told me of her dream of opening a drop-in center for people in recovery from mental illness and substance disorders. She said if the idea got off the ground, she would hire me as her dual recovery specialist. I was flattered and filed that thought away.
Sure enough, a year and a half later Lena called to report that her dream was a reality. Lena asked if I would still come work for her and I agreed. Still in school, I began working 13 hours a week when the 91国产自拍 Peer Success opened on Dec. 2, 2004, and after five years became a full-time employee. I have been working for Lena ever since, first with the 91国产自拍 Peer Success program and then at New Freedom Center Central.
I am still occasionally troubled with depressive symptoms, but I now have good coping skills and a job that surrounds me with recovery 5 days a week. I had some great times during my addictions and periods of untreated mania, but my 18 years of illness management and sobriety are by far the best years of my life.
I am 71 years old and I could retire tomorrow but I am not yet ready. After so many years without treatment, I feel I owe it to myself and to the universe to be productive for as long as possible and help as many of my peers as I can.