Want Help To Get Better?

[paul m]

Hello Everyone. When I was first diagnosed and when I had the strength I spent hours trying to find out information about my illness. It was a tough job and even when I did get some info I had a hard time trying to figure out what to do with it, even if I did understand what a benzodiazipine was or how CBT worked.

The Mood Disorder Association of Ontario(MDAO) has a new website called Mental Health M.A.P.(My Action Plan) designed to help us organize and understand.

It's a great new website. It has advice, tips, help to plan your recovery, an appointment tracker, an mood tracker other types of trackers and much more. You can even pick an online personal coach. Is it easy? Well it's easy to use, but if you want to use it to help get better than it will take time. But as we all know, there is no fast track for recovering from a mental illness.

It's not an instant, "wow I'm better because I spent 30 minutes reading this website", rather it can be a major tool in your arsenal to help you get better. It's interactive and you can save and go back at any time. It's designed to be with you for a long time, not a short time. You can browse it without joining.

There are also personal stories about every day ordinary people who have lived with a mental illness. People who are from all walks of life ,just like you and I . Karen Liberman's story is nothing short of amazing, if nothing else make sure that you read her story. You will also find some other interesting stories. I hope that you take the time to visit the site. Take Care. paul m

http://www.mymentalhealthmap.ca/MDAO/Login.aspx

[astronaut]

Great, thanks for this, Paul.

[uni]

Thanks for posting the link Paul. I checked out the site and will be going into it more thoroughly when I have time. Karen Liberman, from the little talking picture of her (what do you call those little talking pictures anyway?) strikes me as someone I'd like to meet in person.

[paul m]

Hello Uni. Those little talking pictures are the personal coaches that will help you through the system. Under personal settings there is a choice of three coaches and you can chose one of the three(once you register).

Karen is a nice person and a gifted speaker. I first met her in about 2001.

By the way. The appointment tracker etc can be set to send you email messages as reminders. You can even set a reminder to your self if you have been away from the module for 3 days. Take Care. paul m

[uni]

Thanks for the explanation Paul. Somebody definitely put a lot of thought into the whole thing. Are you using the site for yourself?

[paul m]

Hello Uni. Am I using the site? Yes and no. Hopefully I'm going to start everything on April 4th as I do better when I pick a start date. However I've started out by going through and reading everything to decide what I want to work on.

I'm going to be using part of it as a trial for myself, particularily the trackers sections. I'm really lousy at writing down appts, tracking my moods etc, so it will be a test for me.

I've read through the planning your recovery modules. A lot of the info there is old hat for me, but some of it is new. An even an old dog can learn new tricks.

The resource center, is a good one , but that incorporates other sites from the past that I'm familiar with.

I've also read all of the stories in the personal story section in the past. In fact out of the 14 stories, I've met the people featured in 8 of them. I know some of people quite well.

So yes I have started and no I haven't actually done anything yet. Take Care. paul m

[Kaight]

Looks interesting! Very promising tool!

[uni]

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it Paul. This may be splitting hairs (or hares with Easter coming) but it seems to me you have already done something by reading it through, and you deserve a pat on the back for that .