There Is An Urgent Need To Help Our Young

There Is An Urgent Need To Help Our Young
Sep 2nd, 2017 by Mara James

​It’s amazing how one’s life can be turned around in an instant. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would experience a manic episode and be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, especially at the age of 48! Things that I was encountering were crazy, but my mind was crystal clear! On that day, I stepped into the world of mental illness and I will never be the same again. However, I mean this in a good way.
My husband Kenneth and I have a son who was been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD, so mental illness was not new to us. My mother also had bipolar disorder but I was still shocked when this illness came and sought me out and engulfed my life. There is no way I would have got through my crisis without medication initially, but as I started coming out of the fog, I knew that I did not want to stay medicated for the rest of my life. But what were the alternatives? Where should I turn? I started to seek out holistic healing therapies and thanks to the many gifted healers who were sent my way, I am now off all of my medication. It has not been an easy path, but it has been an enlightening one.
I used to refer to May 2014 as my manic month of May but now I call it my magical month of May as it has opened my eyes to the need to change the way mental health challenges are viewed. I started the Extraordinary Lives Foundation to bring awareness to mental health and wellness with a focus on children and to provide support and resources for parents of children experiencing mental health challenges. If we can help young children deal with fear, stress and anxiety, hopefully we can help prevent them from self-medicating with drugs and alcohol when they grow older.