Nice Valentines Day activity.

The plan is (was?) to get it signed into law on Valentines Day. Dunno if that's still possible, but our Governor said he'd sign the bill.

When I was hypomanic (at least I think that's when) I would sometimes hear my Mom calling my name. It was like she was in the other room. I knew she wasn't there but I could hear her outside of my head.

Also one of the times I was in the hospital there was a patient who hallucinated cats. She knew they weren't there but she'd see them on the street or in her house and in the hospital. All kinds of cats.

I don't agree with the last civil rights struggle comment but there's still such a huge stigma to mental illness. There's a forum I've been reading lately for bipolar disorder and the majority of the people say they don't tell anyone because they are afraid of what will happen or because of past experiences. Including family members disbelief, harassment, or cutting the person wtih bipolar disorder out of their lives. I can only imagine it's worse for someone who has schizophrenia considering the perception.

Heck I read an editorial in the paper back home in the case of a well known person (locally) acting erractic - the person writing the editorial said it would be better for him and his family if he had a drug addiction rather than having a mental illness.

I once saw a chart that showed how the most feared illnesses have varied over time. More than 100 years ago it was common for people to lock up their relatives who had cancer and keep it secret. Also, AIDS was often kept secret, especially in the early days of the epidemic.

One thing that didn't change over time was people's fears of mental illness--that's always been high.

I rarely tell people I suffer from depression, FWIW.

I freely tell people I was diagnosed with PTSD. Let them work out their issues for what that means, I'll be over here being awesome and shit, F them.

I would dispute the word "last." Because there are, no doubt, civil rights issues that we haven't even considered yet. But mental illness generally has a stigma.

I'm trying to be more open. But to most people, I leave early on Tuesdays for "a doctor's appointment." And they can figure out on their own what's going on that I see a doctor each week.

I wish my Spanish were better: Telemundo has exceptional programming on during the day. I would love to better understand what is going on.

Is that breed OK for a white person to say?????

I think it should be called MANDINGO the Redbone Coonhound. That would be more fun. And the owner should be a black person, who gets that "Uhuh, go on..." look every time a non-black person has to say its name.

I spent a lot of time trying to clear the way for my mother to be "allowed" to be depressed (should it happen, and it didn't, which is great) when she was first diagnosed with cancer. My parents know I've been on anti-Ds, but I don't think they'd thought about it much.

We tend to have dramatic and explosive mental issues in my family. Needing to adjust my chemistry to face the day wasn't something they felt comfortable putting in the same bucket.

In continuing crappy news today, I just read that Alyson Hannigan has been receiving death threats.

Gavin de Becker would say all famous people have somebody like that. Like it's more like "Which one?" But I'm sorry she's scared and hope she has someone like de Becker on her side.(and not only because he's practically a Larry Stu and incredible gun-control advocate)

Do I continue to wait for Fedex to deliver the "surprise" Valentine's Day present from DH, or do I go home and hope it wasn't perishable and that I'll get it tomorrow?