Defying Mental Illness Day

Today is exactly 5 years when Chuck and I sat at the consultant psychiatrist office to hear the words NO MENTAL ILLNESS.    This year, 2015, we decided to launch Defying Mental Illness Day.    It is a day that will always be celebrated on March 19 of every year moving forward.  We welcome everyone to join in and  celebrate this day for this is your day too;   It is not exclusive to Chuck and I.

By commemorating this day, we can bring attention to and educate others on mental illness through our various activities and outreaches centered around mental illness.  We can put a full stop to stigma and discrimination.   This year as part of our celebration we are giving away free Meditation and Confessions for People Challenged with Mental Illness and also Meditation and Confessions for Fear, Anxiety and Worry.  Please go to Amazon now and download your Kindle copy.

Thank you for being a part of this historic day.   We look forward to bigger celebrations and having more on board next year and beyond.

 Zoe’s story

Chuck had already been off medication for a while.  There had been no incident and he had been stable at this point.    

We had taken a bold step of faith to get this far.  We had come a long way with tears, persistence and perseverance.  We had refused to give up even when it seemed that we should.  We were relentless.  We knew our destination, however. 

Now sitting in that office, I wondered what the consultant psychiatrist would say.  I could not even imagine what Chuck was thinking or feeling. 

The office was bare and had nothing welcoming about it.  I had never been in a psychiatrist office before.  When I had married Chuck, I had proclaimed that he would no longer be admitted in a mental hospital.  Words are so important...Chuck had got ill even after I had said those words but our confessions were to remain true.  Chuck never stepped foot in a mental hospital. 

So sitting in a psychiatrist office was a new experience for me.  I was gobsmacked.  I noticed a clock far beyond arm reach.   There were no charts or pictures.  The table was bare.  There were two chairs beside the one the psychiatrist was sitting.  I sat in one, Chuck the other. 

The psychiatrist was asking us questions.  He could not reconcile the person in the report with the one that sat opposite him.  He finally asked if we knew what schizophrenia was.   I could see he was baffled.  He was also lost for words.  Finally, he said the words…I am discharging you indefinitely.  NO MENTAL ILLNESS.  I wanted to jump over the bare table.  I wanted to hug the psychiatrist.  Words cannot explain how I felt…We had defied the odds. 

Chuck had defied mental illness.  Someone had done it…and our mission was born that day so that others could do the same.

About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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