Coming Home

I have recently returned home after a one week stay at the hospital. This was my first hospitalization and it was a very interesting experience. I can't say that it was either good or bad. I found support in many of the other patients, but didn't find very much help from the staff. I will refrain from saying where I stayed at, but I found it interesting that I was not asked to evaluate my stay when others were. I find myself to be a bit more vocalized than some others and I think that perhaps they realized that.
Coming home has been a wake up call. As I feared, I essentially was hiding from the situation out here, and everything was waiting for me when I came home, but I had hoped that I would be able to ease into the situations. Some I have been able to, some I haven't. Being a parent is not something that can be done part time, I realize now. Especially when the other parent works on the weekends. I do have alternative support, but it seems that they are only available at certain times and I am left to manage on my own when I don't feel that I have learned any real coping skills in the week that I was in the hospital. I am hoping that the Partial Hospitalization Program that I am now involved with will provide me with better skills, because I really need to find some coping skills. I have found that NAMI will be a big help and I am signed up for their peer to peer class starting in April. If you are someone diagnosed with a mental illness and live in the Kenosha/Racine area I highly recommend trying to get in to the class. It will be a huge benefit for your recovery. You can contact Luann or Lynelle at 262-637-6200. It is on Wednesdays from 1-3:30 pm in Racine from April 6th - June 8th. I hope to see you there.