ADDICTION
January, 2021
Living with a mental health issue can be difficult, to say the least. Add the oftentimes paralyzing fear of the stigmas attached to all of the diagnosis’ and the issues can destroy a life. When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I internalized that I was broken and could not be fixed. I had heard and even participated in some of the off-color stories told about those living with...Read More
December, 2020
I have written several blogs submitted and posted in Thrive Global, and I am very grateful for that. I have spent a lifetime trying to find my voice and speak on what I was told as a child I should stay quiet about. As a child, I had no diagnosis, no label, and no understanding of what was going on. I knew nothing of PTSD, bipolar disorder, substance abuse disorder,...Read More
December, 2020
One-hundred-thirty-two, is not a big number in some instances, like the number of steps it takes to get to the school bus, how many stairs it is up to the office, or the number of classmates in your school. But. 132 is a number we should not even be able to imagine when it comes to how many people in the United States alone die by suicide in one 24-hour...Read More
October, 2020
I was in a noon Twelve-Step meeting, crying so hard I couldn’t talk when it came my turn to share. There was a pain in my stomach that felt like it was going to reach up to my throat and strangle me any minute. I was going through my second divorce and my co-dependency had a death grip on me. The room was filled with older men, I was the...Read More
October, 2020
My friend Sue had been to see this astrologist, which I thought was a total load of crap. She was totally enamored by the lady and the session she had with her. She couldn’t wait to tell me all that she had been told and how right on it was from the lady, (Mary) by just reading her chart. I was not impressed and I thought my friend had been...Read More
October, 2020
A WORLD ALTERED BY PASSION I had never been able to grow anything, even though my father was known for his green thumb. My Dad could take the scraggliest plant and transform it into a thriving green wonder. I had always been fascinated with his knack for it, but try as I might, it just never seemed to work for me. At the age of thirty, I got my first...Read More
September, 2020
‘Someday, someway Johnnie you will see the gift in this.’ Periodically, those words would echo throughout my mind as I lay in the fetal position on the floor, with a pain in the pit of my stomach that was immobilizing, an obsession with suicide that was inescapable, all the while sobbing like a baby and not one small sign of hope. That was my life for two years. I had...Read More
September, 2020
Defying the Traditional Definition of Manhood It was mid-April 1964 in a small town in KY. I was 5 years old; my mom had just passed and I kept hearing, “You know, Johnnie hasn’t even cried.” Usually, followed with, “Well, boys don’t cry.” It was as if not crying for my mom was something to be proud of. There was a physical pain in my chest that was unbearable. There...Read More