Hope for Troubled Minds

Pre-order Hope for Troubled Minds now!

from “Ripples of Hope” by Leslie Carpenter. Leslie retired early from her physical therapy career to do SMI advocacy on a local, state and national basis. She is a public speaker, a lobbyist in the Iowa Legislature, serves on multiple advisory boards and the NAMI Iowa Board of Directors, teaches NAMI Provider and started Iowa’s first AOT program recently. I have been an advocate for those impacted by brain illness since I was diagnosed in 1995 with bipolar disorder. I’ve shared my own story in the devotional autobiography Delight in Disorder and spiritual memoir When Despair Meets Delight as well as in this blog and various other places. Many people have responded to my story with stories of their own and in early 2021, I decided to collect these in the form of tributes, written as letters, poems, and songs and publish them as Hope for Troubled Minds through Delight [...]

Pre-order Hope for Troubled Minds now!tonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Love

From the author: A couple of months after my husband and I started dating, I began noticing that something was not right. As someone with lived experience with a mental health condition, I notice symptoms of PTSD which provoke him to anger. I searched for help through NAMI (National Alliance On Mental Illness) and started educating myself through a caregiver class called NAMI Homefront for family members of people with military trauma. There, I was able to gather information on how to deal with his condition. After a year of courting, we got married. I thought loving him would be enough to empower him to change his behavior and seek help. How wrong was I! We were able to maintain five bittersweet marriage years, but the illness took a toll on our relationship, and after seeing no change and lack of responsibility regarding his illness, I decided to file for [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Lovetonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: An anthology of letters between those with brain illnesses and our loved ones.

Photo of a young Linda Rippee and Catherine Rippee-Hanson with their baby brother Mark. Mark developed a brain illness and died of undertreatment and the chronic effects of homelessness. I am dedicating this project to the Rippees, a testimony that even life-long devoted love isn't yet enough to conquer serious brain illness in this life. Yet. But his legacy lives on and promotes positive change that gives Hope for Troubled Minds. Tony Roberts, author of When Despair Meets Delight: Cultivating Hope for Those Battling Mental Illness ; podcaster of Revealing Voices ; and administrator of the Facebook community group Hope for Troubled Minds is shepherding a project through his blog at delightindisorder.org we hope will culminate in a book with color photos entitled Hope for Troubled Minds: An anthology of letters between those with brain illnesses and our loved ones. Submit your letter written to your loved one (first [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: An anthology of letters between those with brain illnesses and our loved ones.tonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: One Mom’s Journey from Chaos to Hope

Randye Kaye is the author of Ben Behind His Voices: One Family's Journey From the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), and Happier Made Simple: Choose Your Words. Change Your Life (Front Porch Press, 2022). She's also an actor, voice talent, radio broadcaster, audiobook narrator, teacher and speaker. She co-hosts several podcasts, including Schizophrenia: 3 Moms in the Trenches. She lives with her husband in Connecticut, and her children and grandkids live close by. Her dining room and living room are full of toys. Dear Ben, Life has not turned out to be what any of us imagined, hoped for you, when you were a little boy. You: so bright, so sweet, so enthusiastic, so loving. So many friends, so many talents. The future, so promising. And then came schizophrenia. The great thief. Oh, the symptoms presented in many forms before we - or at least I [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: One Mom’s Journey from Chaos to Hopetonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds – Dreams Deferred by Mary DiNardi

Mary was born and raised in Boston. She moved to Florida in 2008, where she worked in the hospitality industry and as a Victim Advocate. In May of 2022, she and her husband retired, with lots of travel plans! She now volunteers as a Victim Advocate for a local Police Department. For the past several years, she has worked on obtaining Mental Health resources for her community and in raising awareness for the Suicide crisis. Mary wants you to know her son is more than his diagnoses. Justin is extremely bright, funny, and strong. She is blessed to be his mom. Dear Justin.. I recently found the journal I kept while I was pregnant with you. I cried reading it. I never would have imagined how hard your life, our lives, would be. Our journey is not the one I wrote about in that journal. The hopes and dreams [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds – Dreams Deferred by Mary DiNarditonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: My son Jacob by Angie Collier

Angie Collier is a teacher and NAMI volunteer. She quit her full time job in order to be more available to her son. She currently works as a reading specialist online. Dear Jacob, I loved you from the start. Your bright red hair, chubby cheeks and the last of my 3 children. Your brother and sister adored you - holding you, telling you stories, reading to you. You loved lining your Hot Wheels from your bedroom to the living room. You quickly learned to read and you have an incredible vocabulary. At 8 you started hearing voices. We took you to a doctor who put you on medicine, but your depression plunged. In Middle School, you started drugs to self-medicate and later alcohol. At 15 you were diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder. The voices, paranoia, seeing things and violence has been too much to endure, but my love for you [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: My son Jacob by Angie Colliertonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: For My Loving Sister Ann Marie from Mary Beth

Dear Ann Marie, As I think of the holiday season, the end of the year, and the beginning of the new year, I know how blessed I am by having you by my side. I could not ask for a better sister. You always seem to know when I'm getting close to leaping in the rabbit hole of depression and anxiety and you catch me by the tail. It may be a cup of coffee, a delicious homemade meal, or a walk together to just bring us together to talk and see where I am in my journey. You always look to see how you might help me get out of my own way. I don't know where I would be without your love, gentle nudge, and artful sight. Thank you for being you and for loving me when I feel unlovable. I love you, Mary Beth

Hope for Troubled Minds: For My Loving Sister Ann Marie from Mary Bethtonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: My Answered Prayer

My love letter is to the girl who actually loves me ! Her name is Mindy and I distinctly remember praying to God in my misery for a girl who would love me. Here’s our story. We met on a blind double date singing Karaoke. Her friend asked me out and made the mistake of bringing Mindy. I fell right away but didn’t know if our feelings were mutual. She looked like Taylor Dayne and it was in 1989 so that was the style. I fell for her looks and as we got to know each other I fell for her loving and beautiful heart. 3 days of dating and I knew it was serious so I had to tell her my secret. I told her I was a Paranoid Schizophrenic and that if she wanted to end it then, I would understand. She thought for a moment and then [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: My Answered Prayertonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:21-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Daughter and Her Parents Express Gratitude

Dear Mom and Dad, Thank you for loving my battered soul and caring for me when all I could do was hurt and hate myself. Thank you for the care and support. The hours of holding my hand through what we later learned were panic attacks. Thank you for taking me to the ER, and numerous doctors to try to find the cause of my unease. My disease. Which we later learned was called manic depression, or bipolar when we went to a psychiatrist. Dad thank you for the many overtime hours you worked so our family could have a stay at home mom and health care. Thank you mom for being my angel. Thank you for always offering the HOPE that life can get better and that I could be well. I now live a happy healthy life in marriage with a family of my own because of your [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Daughter and Her Parents Express Gratitudetonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:22-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: Love Letter to Adam

Audrey Auernheimer is a retired hairdresser. She taught Family to Family education classes in Kansas with her husband, Tony, for several years before retiring to Oklahoma in 2011. Audrey has 3 children with M.I diagnosis. Two are deceased due to suicide. My beloved son, Wow! What a journey it has been for the past 31 plus years! I remember clearly the day you were born. You took your time making an entry, and seemed a bit reluctant to leave your safe, warm environment. After the third visit to the hospital with “false” labor, I was again told to go home, and wait awhile longer. I groaned. After a month suffering from gestational diabetes and chronic indigestion, I was feeling every minute of my 40 years. Also, I was growing impatient, waiting to meet that tiny infant who had tumbled around happily inside me for the past few months! [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: Love Letter to Adamtonyroberts2024-08-26T13:03:22-04:00