Beyond The Melody

Hello to all the Beautiful Melodies! Be sure to do a weekly check in and feel free to share yours in the comments!
As we enter the Holidays- it is crucial to prioritize self care, build inner trust, and listen to our body’s needs. Beyond the Melody is here to serve as a reminder that holidays can be exciting, stressful, filled with love, and filled with grief.

Living with a mental illness can make gratitude hard but; we are grateful for all of you and your courage in continuing to fight. There can be gratitude within your illness- even your weaknesses can be seen as strength. We are grateful for who you are and see you all as individual people.. not as a diagnosis!

Our check in for today is; feeling hopeful and anxious. The weather and our beautiful fur babies are highlights of today. Our goal is to work on creative projects!

What does your Weekly Check in look like?

We knew it - new science proves it
Take care of you ~ you’re worth it💕

This has been a rhetoric I have seen normalized to the point of a video like this being on my feed daily. The comments filled with jokes and stories of real humans struggling. People admitted into a mental hospital are at rock bottom. They are not just in pain, they are suffering to the point that losing all dignity, choice, and voice is the only way to stay safe. Whether voluntarily or not, they are deemed to be in a medical crisis in need of medical intervention.

Patients are all different and are all fighting the hardest battle, because the battle is within their own mind. The hardest part of this commentary is the people posting that “I shouldn’t have been in a psych ward because it was a whole other level of ‘crazy’”. The people literally saying a mental hospital was more intensive of a treatment than they personally needed are now becoming the voices heard.

This is the danger: please know that there are different levels of severity. But that statement is not to invalidate anyone’s pain. Someone with Stage 2 cancer may still need admission for treatment just as a Stage 4 patient would. Will the treatment be the same? No. Is the treatment still needed? Yes. And chemo/ radiation is not fun or comfortable, but it can save lives. So someone with clinical depression may need a five day stay and someone living with schizophrenia may need three weeks. But neither patient is in an environment designed for comfort. It is designed for safety. Anyone with suicidal/homicidal/ delusional thinking should reach out for help. This speech used can lead people who genuinely need help away from finding it.
Secondly, someone living with mental illness is still a human deserving of compassion and dignity. The rhetoric of “a psych ward has little entertainment or freedom outside of white walls and my case of mental illness does not need that! So unless you have hallucinations or want to be homicidal- it is not for you.” Let’s be clear, someone with mental illness is not defined by their symptoms. Can people with mental illness be dangerous? Yes, just like teachers, pastors, doctors- humans can be dangerous. It baffles me how people who have lived with depression, anxiety(mental diagnosis’) cannot separate illness from person if the illness is less understood. There is a systemic issue within mental health care, but it has nothing to do with an illness more advocated for getting better treatment. It’s has to do with all people having a space that is encouraging rather than harmful. People living with depression admitted in a hospital should have outside time and feel heard, just as someone with bipolar.
Thirdly, the stories shared of other patients episodes to create a conversation of how truly crazy people with mental illness are is disgusting. I’ve been in and out of hospitals my whole life and I have seen what others define as “insane” behaviors. I’ve had my own “insane” behaviors. But symptoms show a small part of an individual. Symptoms of mental illness do not convey who people are, it conveys how sick they are. Truly medically sick. An illness of the brain. Whether living with mental illness or not, no one wants to be remembered by their worst moments. But people with mental illnesses worse moments are not a choice. These people are isolated, hopeless, and receiving care. They are away from everything they know in a setting that has bright lights, too much noice, and they still choose to show up in the best way they are able. These people’s stories are not humorous, they are devastating. They are in battle and their own fellow soldiers are telling their stories.

Mental health treatment has barely advanced. Having more pharmaceuticals created does not meet the need of someone with a sick brain. ECT, Ketamine, Therapy, Brain Stimulation. Three of these options are designed for clinical depression. Let’s shift this conversation from “severely mentally ill people are dangerous” or “we need different sectors depending on insanity” to “what can we do to demand all people living with mental illness are receiving adequate care.”

Lastly, all mental illnesses are valid- but not all mental illnesses are the same. I am glad to hear people suffering with SI for a period of time in their life were able to move on and stay productive and find healing just from lifestyle changes. That is amazing! But that story of recovery will not look the same on others. Some people will need medical interventions their whole life, periods of rest, and relapses will be apart of their journey. It’s not less of a recovery to accept how the journey may not be as traditional as society projects onto people-it strengthens the person. It creates hope. Let’s spread compassion and love❤️

TikTok · monkeyz 288.3K likes, 3429 comments. “OP: ”

💖

🌍 World Mental Health Day Giveaway! 🌍
To celebrate and spread awareness, NAMI Roanoke Valley is giving away a "You Are Not Alone" T-shirt! 💚

Want to enter? It’s easy:
✅ Like our page
🔁 Share this post
💬 Comment "Done" when you're finished

One lucky winner will be chosen and notified on Monday!
Let’s keep the conversation going—because no one should face mental health challenges alone. 💚

You matter;

💚For Su***de Prevention Month it’s so important we around this.

We’re looking forward to starting this peer to peer group! Reach out today to see how you can join.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has not posted on FB since March. So I checked out their website…
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/

The site is being “re-structured,” apparently for months. NIMH has been a valuable resource whenever I wanted to review research. This would be a good NPR story…oh, wait 🤦🏻‍♀️

Another example of the importance of taking care of each other at the community level. Take care of yourselves & take care of others💕

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) - Transforming the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses Secure .gov websites use HTTPSA lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Most of the time you don’t need to say anything, just be present💕