This is Jim, working on my Recovery. Term usually associated with alcohol and drugs, also applies to mental health, where blogging is sometimes a release, theraputic, also at times mad, too over the top, can be a problem.
You see a lot of us, at times easy to spot due to the side effects of the meds, or lack of them in extreme cases where you see someone talking to the walls without a cell phone, perhaps addressing a higher power. Most you don't, leading a life of a bit of desperation at work, depression, or hiding out in rooms misunderstood, or frankly so out of contact for a long time, they talk to few.
A few of us get Modesto Infamous, not in the same way as Scott Peterson, or Carmen Sabatino, but the ones who sit at the library outside, not just the homeless, some of us on disabilty, some of us just visiting friends who went a bit further than we have so far, thanks to a support group, a friend, available services. Some are quiet advocates, some of us email, letters, petitions, some which make sense, some that don't, sort of like the ones without the cell phones. When things calm down and you go back to working on items of interest and help to the community, you find you overstepped that last time, a reason I pack dinner for mom, and NAMI Stanislaus, not serve on their night at the shelter, I pissed some of my friends off who are doing good work. This is not uncommon with mental health issues, where relapse alas is common, and you may be on the meds or not, not even see it coming, or you do, but have to let the storm carry over.
For the most part, and this is despite some critique I have of BHRS, and MPD, services in general, Modestans deal with us ok, not great, but the eccentrics, the characters pretty well tolerated. Patrick Nugent, someone who has had problems as I have had, was able to run for City Council against Janice Keating, not really so much to win, but like candidate George Sharpe of DRAIL, different disabilty, you run for an example, that we have rights, concerns, different maybe, but still people. I think Janice was pretty gracious to her had no real chance candidate, as it makes a statement, mental health is important, and is the largest disability group in the nation, not just Modesto, as many who view the homeless, who have a large percentage in that group, but its ones like me, who lost jobs to problems, ones I've struggled with for the last decade, when giving up the partying ways didn't stop some of the issues going on with me.
Volunteer work, when you're stuck in the land of fixed income disability status, or just need something to do, is encouraged, frustrating, as it is helpful to refind and establish a self worth after coming to grips with fact you're different. Its helped me, especially as I recover from yet another crisis, or wierd experience, to keep on connecting what is important to me, making life in Modesto tolerable, to actually talk to people, not the imaginary.
This was a fundamental part of programs like the Sunshine Place, then turned into Common Ground which is no more, and still a part of Wellness Recovery Center. Easier to volunteer there, where off the wall understood, along with do the best you can. Well, Sunshine Place and Common Ground are gone. Mental health programs in Stanislaus County, like Health services being cut, or changed. Some will be better than what was, but it displaces people who once you're into this bit limiting lifestyle, don't handle change well. The Crisis Intervention Training program for MPD, that I've commented on in Modesto Mojo's blog forum, is an improvement, but now we have changes coming up in what options do the cops have when they have to deal with us, as victims of crimes, as offenders, as Stanislaus Behavior Health Center is up for changes at a Board of Supervisors Public Hearing, where fundamental changes in how that operation is run, are at stake. Be glad if you've never had to go there, but if you had a friend, a relative who has, you want it safe, available in an emergency. I reluctantly concede that, but then I've been there.
Other projects go on. I'm currently trying to revive what was a career in more than art as mercenary graphics, always actually a side line until this happened, where I use my background in real estate and construction, similar to briefly being at the homeless shelter town hall meetings. The establishment of a new drop in self help counseling and volunteer center, not a part of the county, but a group of nonprofits who have a grant, but one that stipulates a "free" or donated site, similar to what the Temp Shelter needed in 2003. I haven't had a whole lot of luck drumming up interest from the usual suspects of civic leaders, Modesto Bee, but that's the price for being Modesto Infamous for my breakdowns, as I am Modesto Famous for my art work. Someone else has to help, and the stats show, one in five people will be dealing with themselves, or family member in my predicament over a lifetime, you might need this help yourselves.
Its not a fun topic, but an important one for Modesto and the County to deal with. If you wonder why more folks might be out talking to walls, well, about 25% of mental health clients without health insurance reduced to emergency only, or drop in status.
In the other blog, I mention a class in relapse prevention. There is also comedy night, the library, being able to watch at Moband, or Off the Air music on the streets, where we try not to be a problem, hope to fit in. Fitting in, at this point is sometimes a journey of Hope. jdc104

That public hearing on SBHC management issues is August 15, 2006, Basement chambers at 1010 Tenth Street. I likely will be watching at home on access TV.