Yorkville starting New Support Group
NAMI DKK starts new support group for families

~For family members/loved ones of someone living with a mental illness 

 

~Meets once a month 

 

"Using the support group model is so essential to the success of our family support groups. Without the training, networking, and support of the group members I fear that support groups would become nothing more than "cry" sessions or "gripe" sessions. As a group the collective wisdom covered a lot of possibilities towards the issues."

 

2nd Tuesday of the Month

7:00 to 8:30 pm 

 

Yorkville Congregational Church

409 Center Parkway,  

Yorkville, IL 60560

 

   

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Brain Work  

   
Consumer Connections Support Group is a monthly recovery support group for people living with mental illness in which people learn from each others' experiences, share coping strategies, and offer each other encouragement and understanding.

The first Consumer Connections support group will meet Monday, February 20, 2012 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.  It will continue to meet monthly on the 3rd Monday of the month.  Please call Denise at 630-405-9336 for more information or if you are interested in joining the group. 

Speaker Training 

We all have a story to tell.  How have you been touched by mental illness or touched by someone that has a mental illness?  Your struggle to survive and recover can be an inspiration for others.  Some people are unaware of what it is like to have a mental illness.  Some people are just  starting the recovery process.  Some want to know that there is hope.

Learn how to share your life experience with others through a program that is specifically structured to gently lead you through the process.  You gain confidence as you practice in a small group.  When you are ready you  can share your story with others as a volunteer for NAMI DKK.  

You can choose where you are comfortable speaking; College or University classes, High Schools, Middle Schools,  teacher inservice days, local churches or community groups are some of the place that  have requested NAMI speakers.  Please join us to help educate our communities and reduce stigma of mental illness.  

Speaker Training will be held:

January 22, 2012  from 10 am to 4 pm

You must preregister but please don't wait because attendance is limited.  

Piecing It All Together (PIAT) strives to bring parents/caregivers of children who have mental health conditions together with school and mental health professionals all under the same roof, hearing the same message of hope for our kids.   

~Held the last Saturday of each month   

~Location will rotate between local mental health providers   

~There will be coffee, lite refreshments  

and a speaker

~There will be time to socialize                 

~All are welcome!

NEXT COFFEE     

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By Doug Bradley, NAMI HelpLine Information and Referral Associate

In the foreward, Howard Kudler, M.D., of the Duke University Medical Center gives a brief overview of the recent history of PTSD. While doctors and society have recognized some kind of mental harm to some troops who had been in battle (e.g. "battle fatigue"), the study of this field was quickly abandoned once wars ended. Only after Vietnam did those who experienced recurring stress from their military service come to regard it as a distinct syndrome. While it was difficult for many veterans to talk about, it was even harder to get the medical establishment to recognize it. Finally, with the 1980 release of the DSM-III, the American Psychiatric Association offered PTSD as a diagnosis.

The stories in this book are varied. While some PTSD came out of one catastrophic event (such as a bombing), others resulted from repeated, high-level stress (like seeing civilian casualties many times while peacekeeping in the Balkans). All of the veterans in this book, however, felt that these experiences fundamentally changed them. Loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, withdrawal from friends, anxiety and depression all eventually plagued these veterans, even if they did not notice changes at first.

The accounts by family members, in some cases spouses and relative of the veterans in the book, are also illuminating. The lives of family members are disrupted, often permanently through divorce and estrangement, when a loved one returns with PTSD. Children especially may not understand what has happened and feel that they are to blame for their parent's problems.

The good news is that many of the veterans and their families are finding ways to cope. Lower-stress careers, medications, therapy, the support of other veterans and friends are all helpful to those in this book. While there is no magic cure, the people here take advantage of what they can to move on. Like the Vietnam veterans who knew that PTSD was real, these current veterans are on the cutting edge of recovery from this disorder.

Although some interpretation and analysis by the author might have proven useful in making sense of these stories, these accounts stand on their own. As the foreward states, PTSD-or any mental illness-does not belong to mental health professionals, but to the people who live with and are in recovery from it.     

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