So here is what Cassie Mae at Reading, Writing, and Lovin' It has to say about her cosponsored Blogfest:
Every great story has great characters! So this blogfest is designed to help us flex our character writing muscles through three separate blog posts.
As I mentioned, this Blogfest is being cosponsored, and so Cassie Mae is working with Angela Cothran at Live to Write...Edit When Necessary Please go and visit either of these ladies' sites via the links I've provided to read all the juicy details and join!
Now for my confession...
I've mentioned before that I REALLY hate mental illness, you can read about it here and here. Somehow my life seems to be consumed by it at the moment. In my last post regarding my brother, I discussed his willingness to admit he needs medical help. He has been staying at our home since then! That brings the cacophonous ridiculousness of my condo to seven residents; Hubby, Archer Girl (my daughter), Archer Boy (my eldest son), Lil' Demon (my baby), Mother (literally, my mom), Diva of Darkness (me) and now add Crazy (my brother). All of us in a 1600 square foot, 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom condominium. All I can say is Holy Shit and Hairy Balls!
I am a mother of three with one demon-possessed 18 month old still at home (I can't afford to send him to daycare, or I TOTALLY would!) and now I am having to drive my brother to AA meetings and counseling sessions and food stamp offices and welfare departments and this and that...it really is never ending.
So when I sit in with him at an appointment and he begins to explain how
he isn't schizophrenic because the voices in his head only tell him
"GOOD" things - well, it is very hard to nonchalantly pick my jaw up
from off the floor, dust it off and then reattach it. Wha-Wha-
WHAT??? YES. He has voices that tell him things. Things to
do, things to say, how to act, how to react; but EVERYTHING they tell him is
for his benefit. So he's not crazy, right? In fact, he believes
that these are spiritual beings of some kind and they are encouraging him to
stay true to his "path of spiritual warfare" and to "keep his
armor on at all times" because he needs "to bring the wrath of GOD
down on everyone that doesn't believe in him". Really. I'm not
kidding. By the way, the therapist couldn't really get him to solidify
his meaning when he said "believe in him", like HIM as in GOD or him
as in himself?!?! I think he started to realize that saying you are
Christ might get you labeled "CRAZY", so he just ignored the
question.
He's working the 12 steps, he's going to counseling, he's got an
appointment with the county mental health office to see a psychiatrist at the
end of this month...but I still question whether he REALLY understands that
what goes on in his mind is not normal. I'm still waiting for the other
shoe to drop, because it always has in the past.
So all of that leads up to my confession - I don't trust my brother to not
be playing me for the fool...again.
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