May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We can’t think of a better way to help you better understand mental illness than to hear from two of our members as they share a bit about their own journeys. Continue reading
Category Archives: Member Spotlight
The End of Over a Decade of Homelessness
After suddenly losing his job over a decade ago, Anthony felt something inside him break. He soon found himself homeless, sleeping in a park or abandoned building. He recalls the street as a place where everyone wants to be somewhere else, but no one knows how to move away from their present situation. Continue reading
Friendship Rather Than Fear
Rita, second from the left, spending time with some of her friends from The Well at the spring spiritual retreat.
Rita’s struggles with her mental health began nearly four decades ago. “It started when I had a baby,” she says. Her suffering from postpartum depression eventually led to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder—and a long and difficult path of dealing with a serious mental illness. It is with pain that Rita recalls being hospitalized and strapped to a bed due to the condition she’s dealt with for so long. Continue reading
Rooted in Friendship
Rita, Viola and Sharon always sit together. Viola is Sharon’s mother, and Rita is Sharon’s best friend. The Well Community is their meeting place. “Rita was my neighbor at the apartment building I lived in and invited me to come to The Well with her one day. She has been coming for years, but I joined about six years ago. We come here most days and talk to everybody,” Sharon says. Continue reading
Fighting Stigma: The Power of Little Things
Lydia at the 2017 Well Community Spring Retreat
Seven years ago, Lydia was introduced to The Well Community by the man who would become her husband. She met Bill on the bus, and he shared with her about Jesus and invited her to join him at The Well. Two years later, he presented her with a ring, and the couple was married there, Lydia in a royal blue dress and Bill in a navy suit.
To Lydia, The Well is far more than the place where she got to know her husband. It’s a place of support in a world that often views those dealing with mental illness through the lens of stigma, treating them with prejudice or even cruelty. Continue reading
Member Spotlight: Anthony
About a decade ago, Anthony was a young man working for FedEx, loading and unloading boxes from trucks in North Dallas. But when he suddenly lost his job, something inside of him fell apart, he says.
“I just couldn’t deal,” says Anthony. “I just fell into nothing.” Continue reading
Examples of Love and Devotion
Akintunde, on the far right
For 20 years, Akintunde worked as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor in Dallas, Arlington and Grapevine, helping men and women who struggled with drug addictions receive appropriate treatment. When he retired several years ago, Akintunde quickly realized the copious amount of downtime wasn’t for him. He wanted to be active and productive, and despite a diagnosis of glaucoma that left him with peripheral vision so limited he qualified for medical disability, he decided to go back to school. Akintunde is now a graduate student working toward a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in mental health and substance abuse at the University of Texas at Arlington. As part of his graduate degree requirements, Akintunde interned at The Well for eight months. Continue reading
Pets As Comfort Companions
Well Community members Lyndon and Angel with their dogs
What’s more comforting than a cat curled up with you after a tiresome day? Or an energetic puppy bounding around the house, its little tail wagging and its pink tongue hanging out its mouth? Not much, many pet owners will say. Pets can bring joy and comfort into any home, and this is especially true for men and women who struggle with severe mental illnesses. Continue reading
Finding Significance at The Well
“Mental illness … is like being caught up in a tornado, a tornado you don’t really see,” says Well member PT. “You see the debris that is floating in the air … but you don’t really see the tornado.”
PT has lived with the storm of mental illness for over 35 years. He experienced his first episode related to bipolar schizoaffective disorder in 1980, while in Israel with a discipleship group. “I didn’t sleep for three days straight,” he recalls. “My thoughts were racing.” Continue reading
Homelessness: A Roadblock to Recovery
Well member PT knows the challenges of both mental illness and homelessness well. Although he could afford to pay rent, when the symptoms of his bipolar schizoaffective disorder became more acute, it was hard for him to find a place to stay. “I didn’t have the sense to try to figure out a place to live,” he says. Continue reading