An awesome mental health professional
I could say tons and tons and tons about Marc and how awesome he is, but I know exactly how he would reply if I was to give him accolades. He would turn it around to me. You see wellness is a choice. You can choose to be whatever you want to be, and I am talking about emotions too. Absolutely no one has control of your body, not even your mind.
What I just said, he taught me. I was born an emotional jellyfish. Always, always, always crying, and I thought there was no hope for me no purpose, why bother being positive like my mother begged me. Nothing is positive, nothing is good everything sucks. There is absolutely no way I keep from feeling the way I feel, and he hurt my feelings, or she made me mad.
So glad to have empowerment.
A Precious Gem he taught me:
Medication, while sometimes necessary, does not make you well. You determine your own wellness. It is like an equation 60% percent you a practicing good mental health, 40% medication. What he truly felt was that it was 80% me, 20% medication, but I always opted for giving my medicine more credit.
But you know what, he's right. I wouldn't be doing so well if it wasn't for me working at it. Sure I can take my nightly medication and quietly chant to myself work, work, work. Lay down for the night, and not get up in the morning, and when I get up stay in my pajamas. And if I get out of my pajamas don't take a shower.
Or get up lay on the couch all day, watch tv or sit on the computer all day, eat nothing but junk, ignore my daughter, refuse to help her with her homework.
But no I am out of bed most days at 5:30 am draaaaggggging! Some days don't wanna move. My mind and my body will itself back to bed. But if you didn't already know, I am a fighter. I may get knocked down, but I will get up, and I will not quit. I get in that car, drive one hour to work, and some days I still feel like shit, but I work anyway.
The majority of my days are good, but when I have a hard day. I have a HARD day!
You think I am talking about myself, nah, if it wasn't for walking into his office July 11, about seven years ago. I don't know where I would be today. I have an idea. I wouldn't have finished college. I would be sitting in my home with my daughter, cleaning the fricken house all day. (Sorry she was a toddler then and it was just me and her all day. Props to all the Stay At Home Moms. It is the hardest job one could ever expect to do. )
I wouldn't have a job, not even a minimum wage one. I convinced myself after being fired twice that I was not fit keep a job, and I was destined for failure.
See it's people like Marc that keep the world going round. Keeps my world going round.
I love him, and when I hear him talk about his children and grandchildren. I wish he could adopt me. You can say all kinds of negative things, like you have to pay someone to love you and care about you. No not exactly, I had to pay someone to teach me to love me. And that is worth all the money in the world. You can't say nothing worse than anything I have ever said to myself.
There are times this year. I have left his office balling. And I want to stay so bad, but when my time is up, it's up. Times like when I leave crying, and he wonders if he even helped me at all. I promise you he has. it is all about choices. My choice to take that last tissue and compose myself. When I need to cry cry. Give my pain a little hug, recognize the difficulty I am going though, but let that pain go. Let that problem go.
Have you ever observed storm clouds churning into a storm? The clouds build and mix and build into an angry mass of rage and turmoil. That was me. Revisiting something over and over again, mixing it up, churning it together, building myself into a ball of rage, pain, and turmoil.
But I don't have to live this way...... Nope.... I know how to settle my storm because Marc Witte gave me the tools.
8 hours of sleep per night
No naps during the day
Exercise at least 5 times a week for 45 minutes
Eat Three healthy meals
Follow a routine
Common Sense Huh? Whatever it is ... it's a foundation to wellness.
He has taught me coping skills, social skills, told me simple things that just stick with me.
Once he told me that he only knew so much, and if I came to see him enough he would begin to repeat himself, and the purpose of therapy was for me to find my counselor inside of me. When I have a problem I just can't take or cope listen because inside I can find the answer.
He showed me the importance of friends and that I will have more success if my circle of support extends outside from my immediate family, that having a relationship with my siblings and parents, while I may find it stressful it is beneficial to my health. To reach out and repair that relationship that I think is too much trouble, will benefit me in the long run. And when there comes a time when I need to talk to someone i will have a friend, and they will have me if they need a friend.
He taught me one of the simplest things, but one of the most divine in my book. How to make and keep friends. I don't have to dump on someone all my problems. I share something small, and maybe they share something too. I can share a little more, and perhaps they will too. The ideal way to respect boundaries.
He has taught me soooo much, and helped me help myself in ways I can't even verbalize. I just hope to put it into practice more.
He has empowered me to be a healthy functional adult because Bipolar is not a death sentence, just a diagnosis. Please do not become a casualty of mental illness. Keep searching for a solution there is one.
1800-273-Talk Suicide Hotline
http://www.lifeline-gallery.org/?pid=38612286
Kara signing off.
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