MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness Clip 2

Pete Earley, author of the book "Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness", plays the familiar role of a parent of a mentally ill child in the program's hypothetical scenario.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Pete Earley
• Minds on the Edge
• NAMI
• Mental Illness
• schizophrenia
• bipolar
• depression
• Fred Friendly Seminars

[abhollman]

thanks for raising this issue-I was also raised by an ill mother and it wasn't pretty. As an adult, I have now developed the same illness so I am now a consumer. All I can say is that I have a very different perspective about my mother now that I have suffered only a fraction of what she did. Meds and treatment make a productive life possible. I no longer wonder about my mother's suicide when I was 12. I understand the absolute misery she must have been experiencing.

[kyguerrero]

I have to agree with you, but I think a children voice will be heard in the very near future. As a consumer I don't feel I have as many rights as families but that maybe because the system has striped them away. But children programs will be on the way soon, because they can't affor d not to be heard any longer.

[kyguerrero]

I am trying to raise awareness for the airing of Minds on the Edge Preimere tonight. I know what I went throught as a child and I watch what my children go through with my illness. Its so hard to want to do the best thing for your child and your brain is co operating. My children never told me why can't you be normal, neither did my husband or why can you get well faster. But I know they thought it many times. I have the greatest support system at home. I wish my peers had the same or better.

[sirileee]

i agree that we need WAY more voices from children with parents, but i have to say that NAMI now, in some places, has support for children with parents who have a mental illness. i also want to say I LOVE THIS PROGRAM; THANK YOU !!

[mrsmib]

I'm grateful for all these videos and for Mental Illness Awareness Week but, there is a huge voice that I fear is missing, and that is the voice of the children of the mentally ill. My mother is a consumer, and I have nowhere near the rights of the parents of consumers. It is a different life for the children of consumers and I hope, as going through these videos, that voice will be heard.