My Recovery

I am going to start talking about my recovery which started at the State Hospital. While I was there I was finally started on Moban and Kemidrin after a trial of other medications which had different side effects like making my arms and hands shake. I could not have that because I already had a dream of rebuilding my life and starting over. By going to the State Hospital it gave me a chance to put away my old life and start a new one. I did not like the fact that I had mental illness it was and is the worst thing that ever happened to me. One of my first steps was typing I knew from taking classes on the streets that was the only way. Although on the streets I did not have the time. I started from zero and worked my way up to 40 WPM on a apple program called typing tutor. One day I was sitting on the porch of the State Hospital and talking to a worker, whom was not assigned to my case. She asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I told her I wanted to learn computers. She told me she could help me. She introduced me to Tony the head of Vocational Rehabilitation at the State Hospital. He let me learn WordPerfect on his computer and I also did work for him to learn more. I had other teachers there also. They were teaching me typing and math and general studies. They helped me send away for all the paperwork, I would need to enroll in college. Before I left the State Hospital one of the workers there who also was a friend, he gave me the name of his brother whom worked at Metropolitan State College in Denver. I started college and had a relapse the second day there. I went back to the State Hospital for the weekend and they adjusted my medication. I had missed four days already of Spanish class and all you could miss was three days. I had to go to my friend brother and he helped me switch from Spanish to Creative Writing. It is in that class that I was working on an assignment and the Professor asked me a question that I could not answer and told her I could not. She gave me the following advice that I use until this day “Do not ever give up.” I will never forget and use it all the time. I received Bachelors in Human Services. I was studying to be an Alcohol and Drug Counselor, up until my last internship and (I had three). The first two went great and then I started the third one and I was not happy anymore. I had worked my internships at private agencies. I did not want to work in that field anymore. I started looking for something else to do and Public Administration accepted me and I chose them. Through those studies I learned to love two subjects they were Economics and Research. It was to late for me to go back and learn Economics. I decided I wanted to do research. One day before I graduated with my Masters, a nurse and me at MHCD were talking. I mentioned to her that I would be graduating soon. She gave me the phone number to 2succeed and told me to call them after I graduated. After graduating I went to a doctor to make sure I was healthy and nothing was going to stop me from working. I went to 2succeed and told them I wanted to do research. Well after applying for jobs they picked me to work implementing the REE Survey written by Pricilla Ridgeway. The survey team implementing the survey found the language to hard to understand and not written in at least a sixth grade language. They decided to change the survey the next year. The new one is called the PRO survey and it was written to implement the next year. We were told that this was a pilot and it would be whittled down to 13 questions in each subject the next year and it is. After the PRO survey was done in 2009, the Director of Evaluation and Research asked me to come and work for him temporarily. After asking what I would like to do working for him. I told him research and he hired me permanently on June 15th 2009. Around the time I started working full time they stopped making Moban and I had no choice but to change medications. I did not know that it would work out so well. Well I was using Moban to make it work I had to sleep more that eight hours a night. I also had to give up coffee and that was the hardest thing to ever quit. I drank more that two cups a day. I was on Moban for nineteen years. They switched me to Geodon and after two weeks of adjusting, I take 80mg at night because it puts me to sleep after two hours of taking it. It also allows me to get up early and start work at 6:15 everyday. It also allows me to drink coffee, although only drink two cups every morning. I find I do not want it like I use to. My two most researched subjects in the mental health field are recovery and health.