"The NAMI KDK Family Support Group monthly meeting became a constancy in my life since the summer of 2018, the year that a serious mental health condition emerged in our son and dominated our family life.

 

In those bewildering and confusing early months, my wife and I got to hear and learn from people who’s been there, a whole lifetime into it, and still ongoing. It gave us our reality check. This isn’t going to magically go away. It will be a lifetime of work, a lifetime of love.

 

Each monthly regrouping gave opportunities for shared grieving and learning through updates of our ongoing lives, good news of recovery and pains of setbacks. We tell our stories of personal struggles: emotional ups and downs, frustration with medical services, bump-ins with law enforcement, and how only families of loved ones with mental illness can understand what we’re going through.

 

After a temporary halt due to social distancing, NAMI KDK’s Family Support Group monthly meeting resumed via Zoom video conferencing for May. It worked! I do miss being at the same table as my NAMI family. The updates and sharing happened naturally! Emotions and caring happened! It worked!

 

I’m happy that this one constancy in my life continues in these times of uncertainty."

 

-John L.