New Beginnings M y S to r y a nd Th e Story of Club h ous e Vi s ali a By: Gwen Schrank, Co-Founder and CEO–Clubhouse Visalia Ed i tor : B rea the M a ga zi ne
Imagine having an illness that isn’t
These are just a few of the experiences
contagious, however, everyone around
that are constant companions for those
you treats you as if you are. Doctors
of us who suffer from mental illness.
and clinical professionals take you
Our society has refused for decades to
away from everything that you love
deal with the real issues that plague
and everyone that you care about and
the mental health community. An out
put you in a place with others who also
of sight, out of mind mentality has
suffer from a similar illness. It feels like
prevailed. In the early 20th Century,
a place of isolation and confinement.
people were still being institutionalized for chemical imbalances in their brains.
Imagine the feeling of being used as a guinea pig for experiments by drug companies trying to figure out how to fix your mind, but their solutions take away the very best parts of you. Imagine people knowing that you suffer from an illness, but instead of trying to help, they make you feel pitied and less then and that you don’t matter. Imagine takes
living away
dignity, and don’t
in
a
world
your love
understand
that
self-worth,
because people your
illness.
Imagine wanting to die because no one around you understands what you’re going through or how you feel.
You
sense
only
judgement.
8
