Angela McCrimmon

Updated: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 08:44 am

angdmc@hotmail.co.uk

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Biography

Hi. I'm Angela and I've been in the Mental Health System for over 20 years. Actually, let me correct that...I've "SURVIVED" in the Mental Health System for over 20 years! I have always believed that no matter what happens in life you can always use it somehow to help other people. I feel so lucky to be in a personal place now where I can help encourage others and I hope that some of my poems might resonate with others struggling with mental illness. The most frustrating thing for me has been how my diagnosis can change from one psychiatrist to another. I've gone from having a mood disorder...to a personality disorder...back to a mood disorder...now they've settled on a dual diagnosis of mood and personality disorder! Living with a "Label" used to bother me because it often comes with discrimination and above all I am so much more than a label! My purpose now is to share my writing and to stand up proud to say that I am no longer ashamed of battling mental illness and I want to help other people find that peace within themselves too. I feel like it's finally time for people to hear my voice....the voice that says "I Survived!"

Samples

"GET OVER IT" Why don't people treat mental illness with respect, Please tell me why it just never seems the same, Why don't they realise that maybe if they checked, They'd realise that the person's not to blame? If someone said of cancer they need to "get a grip" Or told their diabetes just to go, Would they distribute the same guilt trip, As they do an illness they don't even know? If someone were to say that the stroke was coming on, The heart attack was down to only them, Would they expect all the symptoms to be gone, Then make it very clear that they condemn? Maybe they could ask them to shake off the flu, Remind them their angina's in their head, The back pain that they claim is really quite untrue, It's really psychological instead. Tell them not to bother for the Doctor will agree, They shouldn't really waste the nurses time, I mean, it's very clear there's nothing there to see, Your disease might never be much worse than mine. Maybe one day you will truly understand, That mental illness doesn't ever choose, Who that it befriends and what it might demand, Just pray that it will never touch you too

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