What’s It Like to Have a Mental Illness?

Audio Clips

It’s hard to know what it feels like to have a physical dis-ease if you don’t have one. It’s even more difficult understanding what it’s like to have a mental illness. Compared to having a physical disease, there’s such a stigma with mental illnesses because changes in the brain typically cause changes in behavior which doesn’t usually happen with physical issues. To give you an idea of what it’s like, I interviewed my daughter, Lauren, who was finally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder four years ago. Here’s what she said it’s like. Each clip is about 30 seconds long.

Ron Ball

The Mental Illness Stigma [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/Stigma.mp3|titles=It’s a stigma because people are afraid to talk about it] What Depression Feels Like [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/Depression.mp3|titles=Depression is hard to get out of] What Mania Feels Like [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/Mania.mp3|titles=Mania is like the highest of the highs]
Wrote Dark Poetry [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/Dark_Poetry.mp3|titles=I wrote dark poetry to express my sadness and pain] Other People Out There [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/Light.mp3|titles=There’s a light at the end of the tunnel]
NAMI is a Great Help [audio:https://inroads.cc/audio/NAMI.mp3|titles=NAMI is very supportive, a great help]