I think I'm obsessed with this t-shirt making thing

I just created two more menatl health awareness shirts! Check them out here http://teespring.com/semicolon and here http://teespring.com/mentalhealth. I'm able to sell one of them for cheaper, so we'll see how demand goes this go around. Wish me luck, I'd love for this to become a successful venture for me!

And of course, I"m still selling my bipolar awareness shirt, so if you're interested in that, there's still time to purchase one! http://teespring.com/bipolarawareness.

I'm excited to have found something I enjoy doing, and that people seem to like and encourage, even if no one is purchasing (yet), lol.

Well, just wanted to share my exciting news with y'all!

So what, exactly, is mental illness?

What is mental illness?

A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan.

I think this definition sums it up nicely, don't you? Do you have a better definition? Please let us know in the comments!

What I want to accomplish here...

Warning:

My blog will start with random pieces of information that come to mind as I'm typing.

Thoughts that come to mind about different aspects of my life, with stories that surround that aspect, different events and the emotions that come with happy moments, traumatizing moments, depressing moments,  the mania emotions, the down emotions and everything in between. The necessary evils of medications and the emotions that come with them. Emotions from having to take meds, frustrations in taking meds not working, and the emotions from when they actually do work.

I'll ask questions, I'll answer questions, I'll talk about my experiences from being inpatient and outpatient, how therapy is going, what it's like raising kids and being bipolar, stories from my life that can relate to those topics and who knows what else.

And I'll try to blog lots. It takes 28 days to make or break a habit, and well, I really want this thing to become a habit.

I'm kind of winging this. I want more people to understand what it's like to be bipolar, and spread the word to break the stigma surrounding mental illness. Knowledge is power, right?