May is National Mental Health Month!

 May is National Mental Health Month.  I think it's so important to remove the stigma from mental health issues.  It's important to speak out regarding mental health because that's the only way TO remove the stigma surrounding it; it's the only way to make it not taboo.

I've struggled with clinical depression for the last 14 years, but I imagine that if I had spoken with a doctor sooner, my depression would have been diagnosed sooner; it's something I've struggled with for a long time.  My depression was originally diagnosed because I developed and received treatment for an eating disorder when I was 20 years old and I probably never would have gone to the doctor for just the depression BECAUSE of the stigma attached to it.

NO ONE should suffer alone.  Depression is not a choice, it is a chemical imbalance over which you have no control.  If diagnosed with a physical illness such as diabetes or cancer, you wouldn't tell someone to just get over it, or smile because that'll make them all better.  The same goes for mental illness; people don't just "get over it," they need medical treatment.  Don't make it harder for them.

The good news is there IS treatment available for mental illnesses! There IS a light at the end of a very dark, very long tunnel.

I am still on medication to treat my depression and I probably will be for the rest of my life.  Some people would say that's not necessary, but I know that I have a form of treatment-resistant depression that requires medication. Some people don't need prescription drugs to treat their depression but I do.  I'm okay with that, so there's no reason you shouldn't be okay with it.  After 14 years, I'm learning to live with depression.  I'm a mom who is treated for depression and that's a whole other bag of worms!

If you're struggling with depression, tell someone: your spouse, a trusted friend, a medical professional.  If you can't find the words to speak up, show them this post and tell them to read it.  And if you're that trusted friend or family member reading this about your loved one, do just that - love them.  Help them find MEDICAL help for their depression and love them through this period of their life.  Your love and understanding is the best thing you can give them.

There are many other types of mental illness; depression is just the one with which I have experience.  Your love is still the best thing you can give someone struggling.  Love them and help them get the professional help they so desperately need and might be having trouble finding.

And to those of you suffering in silence ~ this WILL get better, I promise.  Stay strong, my friends.

Love,

Sam 

RunDisney - Fail!

I came here to write a happy post.  I was about to say, I am SO excited that RunDisney has just announced they will be adding a 10k race to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January.

Like any good blogger, I went to the RunDisney website to get more information, maybe even a pretty picture of someone in much better shape than me running in a cute costume, to post with my entry.

And then I saw it.

Walt Disney World 10K - SOLD OUT

WHAT?!?!

Don't the folks at Run Disney KNOW that I can't run more than a 10K?  Don't they know that no matter how many times I've tried, I just can't finish Half Marathon training?

Seriously, y'all the race was just announced within the last month (and it really feels like it was just last week).  How can it already be sold out?

I'm so depressed.

I'm Famous*

*And by famous, I mean a famous person is following me on Twitter and that makes me famous by default.  Suck it, Tommy. 

Did you get the memo that I'm figuring out how to work Twitter? I posted it earlier this week, but not on the blog, so you might not have gotten it.  Anyway, I'm learning how to effectively follow people, tag them, use the # sign appropriately.  I've even started my own Twitter campaign to get the Disney Social Media Moms Conference to invite me to attend the 2014 Conference. That's right - all of that has happened in the last week.

So, after learning that I have figured out how to use Twitter and knowing how gosh darn funny I am, it should come as no surprise that I have a famous follower: The Bloggess.  She is HI. LARIOUS.  Perhaps you know of Beyonce the Giant Chicken? Yes, that's The Bloggess.  And now she's following me.  GOOD LAWD.

And now I can die happily.

Peace out, yo.

Super Mom

Someone out there needs this reminder today. 

Stay strong moms!

Too Blessed to Be Stressed

Did I mention I'm moving next week? Life is a little stressful right now.

Packing, mothering, wife-ing, packing, working, friending, packing.  It's a lot.  

You'll notice that blogging wasn't in that list.  I'm not funny right now, I'm stressed.

Even so, there are so many things for which I am thankful.  

I really am too blessed to be stressed.  

Today's Challenge:
See how many blessings you can think of and focus on them all day, rather than your stresses. 

Oreo Therapy

Sam here.

I'm having Oreo therapy tonight. You know how it is.  It starts with a nice, "healthy" dinner like chicken from a can and after the the kiddo goes to bed you find a package Oreos in the pantry.  It goes downhill from there.  Sure... start out with one.  Just one.  A little taste.  Then it turns into three on the coffee table.  And then it just goes downhill from there.

I'm moving in two weeks.  Out of the house in which we began our family and into the house ... in which my in-laws live.  Yup, we're moving in with my in-laws. {Who are, incidentally, pretty fabulous.}  Nevertheless, two adults, one child, and one polka-dotted dog are moving in with the in-laws for four months while our new house is being built.  The third adult in our house is moving in with other folks, because simply adding the four of us to an already established house of adults and dog are one thing, but adding THREE adults, one child, and a polka-dotted dog to an already established house is just plain crazy talk.

So that means I'm packing up an entire house to put everything in storage and move into another, already established home, for the rest of the school year and the entire summer.

Tell me I don't deserve Oreo therapy and I will cut you.

No, I'm not kidding.

Crisis + Oreos = Crisis averted.

Now, please excuse me. I'm going to Pinot up and prepare for more moving boxes.

Up tomorrow: Little Red Randi-hood and the Big Bad IEP.

Who We Are

We're moms.  We're wives.  We're independent women.

We came together as friends when we realized we all had a piece of each other inside of us.  Over time, we got closer and decided to give ourselves a name.

In our discussions (around a bottle or two of pop...or maybe wine), we said wives and moms should be given badges like Girl Scouts when we do certain things in our lives.  And with that, The Badges were born.  Seriously - if Girl Scouts can earn a pretty badge for their sash when they learn enough about birds, why shouldn't we earn one when we get pooped on by a child? 

We became a Sisterhood when we realized we all inadvertently became members of the same sorority when we birthed special needs children.  It's a sorority of which none of us wanted to be members, but now that we're in it, we're making the best of it.

We were the Sisterhood of the Badges.  We had four founding members, but knew there were so many honorary members out there.  We quickly learned that there were other women out there who were just like us who didn't have special needs kids... some of them didn't even have kids.  But we're the same inside. 

Now we're the Gammas: the sisters of Beta Delta Gamma. We're moms, wives, sisters, daughters, full-time workers, stay-at-home-moms, a little bit of everything, all at once.  We're as close as Georgia and Florida and as far away as Montana. 

We're a little crazy, but not entirely cray-cray.

We ARE the Mommies of the Year.