family – Delight in Disorder

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.tonyroberts2023-01-24T16:36:41-05:00

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 DiNarditonyroberts2023-01-16T14:35:32-05:00

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 Colliertonyroberts2023-01-11T00:06:01-05:00

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 Adamtonyroberts2022-12-12T19:56:50-05:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Special Husband, from Your Grateful Wife

from the author: "I am happily married to a hard-working and loving husband. A homeschooling SAHM to three beautiful children, one with autism, one with ADHD, and one with both autism and ADHD. A follower of Jesus. On a journey of maintaining my own mental health through it all and sharing my experiences in the hopes of spreading awareness and encouraging others along the way. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram @lifewiththecouches" Dear husband, Living with depression and anxiety is like a constant battle with myself. The continuous flow of conflicting thoughts and emotions is exhausting. On the one hand depression makes me lethargic, grumpy, depletes all motivation and makes me not care about anything. On the other, anxiety makes me fidgety, unable to sit still, and all the emotions about everything flood in at once and it's s too much to bear sometimes. Feeling these two things [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To My Special Husband, from Your Grateful Wifetonyroberts2022-12-02T21:09:06-05:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Tribute to James Mark Rippee from his “Twisted” Twin Sisters

As an American Curbside Caregiver and SMI/SBD Advocate Linda Rippee Privatte supports her disabled blind brother with a serious brain disorder who has gone untreated for 34 years. Since then, he has been homeless for 14 years. She is one of two twin sisters who advocates for change in the United States, also known as 'Twin Tag Team' and more recently as Twisted Sisters Advocacy & Activism for Serious Brain Disorders. They each do things the other cannot. Her twin, Catherine, is skilled at social media awareness, advocacy, and education, but Linda is the last family member capable of reaching Mark on the streets and providing him with the necessities of life. To my younger and only brother, Mark; I grew up believing that love could fix anything…that love conquers all. That love would carry us through any situation. I believed that family never gives up on family. I [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Tribute to James Mark Rippee from his “Twisted” Twin Sisterstonyroberts2022-11-30T19:54:42-05:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: To Dearest Dad, most lovingly from Helen

Dearest Dad, It has been twenty years since you took your own life. I have only just begun to openly talk about your life and death. Why? Maybe it was because we didn’t celebrate your life with family and friends in early February, 2001. Maybe it was because I didn’t fully understand the extend of your mental illness. Maybe it was because you and Mom moved to Florida in 1972 and there wasn’t much visitation between the families. Thanks for being my father. I am blessed to call you “Dad” and want to tell the world about our life together. I remember living in our small house when I was very young. I was unaware that most six-years didn’t go to bed while the sun was still shining brightly. Mother would fix supper for Nancy and me. She would not eat with us but ate with you when you came [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: To Dearest Dad, most lovingly from Helentonyroberts2022-08-14T12:54:57-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: Dear Bobby, from your grateful mom.

Dear Bobby, One of my greatest accomplishments in life was becoming your mother - I had hopes and dreams for the man you would become. Your intelligence, compassion and determination in everything you did brought me a great sense of pride. Bipolar disorder no doubt changed the way I see the world and what I now want for you, my loving son. This brain illness at times has made you say and do things uncharacteristic of the person that I know is deep inside of you. It is an illness that has caused much turmoil for you, for this I am deeply sorry and only wish that as your mother I could take the pain away. Despite great suffering, despair and heartbreak, bipolar disorder has taught me so much. It has taught me that we live in a world where those with serious brain disorders are discriminated against. We live [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: Dear Bobby, from your grateful mom.tonyroberts2022-05-07T17:49:20-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: An Open Letter to a Fellow Traveler by Brandon A.

Dear Fellow Traveler, Did you think life was going to go like this? You had plans and dreams about work, life, accomplishments, where you wanted to live and with who. Then mental illness stepped in. Now what? I was 14 when the darkness fell on me. I had been a freshman: insecure, loud, loving, caring, smart, prideful, naïve, hopeful, occasionally hardworking, unfocused, etc. I played drums in bands, played goalie in soccer, and played risk with my friends, sometimes for days. Then I was nothing. I was a contaminant. I was walking anguish. I got home every day and carried myself upstairs to my room. I would turn on the radio, collapse into my comforter, and sob. The music drowned out the crying so no one else could hear. I was not alone. Kay Redfield Jameson had bipolar disorder, like I do, and she survived. She had become a clinical [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: An Open Letter to a Fellow Traveler by Brandon A.tonyroberts2022-03-27T21:53:04-04:00

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Prayer to be Rooted in Love by Nancy Boucher

Nancy Boucher is the ninth of thirteen children born into a first generation Italian American family. The importance and value of family has been an enduring force in her life. She taught special education for 24 years in public schools, starting programs for children with behavioral challenges. Her responsibilities included screening, observation, and evaluation; developing and implementing goals with students; consulting with teachers, administrators, and parents; and providing in-service assistance to staff. She loved my job, and was always attentive to and thankful to each of her students who taught her how to become a better teacher. She is well aware of the challenges facing families and their children when dealing with a serious condition, not yet totally understood. Twenty four years ago her youngest son got sick with a serious mental illness and her family's life as they knew it veered off course. They were catapulted into a wilderness [...]

Hope for Troubled Minds: A Prayer to be Rooted in Love by Nancy Bouchertonyroberts2022-02-27T15:31:56-05:00