May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so you can find a lot of blog posts recounting various experiences trying to get diagnosed, find a treatment or method of coping that works for that person, and so on. I read a couple of those posts on Sunday and thought, “I should write a post linking to the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s awareness page.”

But you know me, I have to give it some personal context. So I started a blog post that was supposed to be a brief overview of some of my experiences watching a few loved ones try to get diagnosis and treatment, and the varying levels of support they found. The next thing I knew, I had nearly a thousand words ranting about some of my own bad experiences with the inappropriate application of therapy, beginning with the time in middle school I was threatened with expulsion unless I went to therapy because I was continually the victim of bullying.

Which is exactly the opposite of what I wanted to write about, since this is Mental Health Awareness Month, not Gripe About Homophobic School Administrators Month, right?

So, here’s a great (and more appropriate) post by a musician I follow: My Medicated Case for Psychiatrics, to read instead.

When you can get the treatment you need, it’s wonderful. Perhaps equally wonderful is have friends and loved ones who support you along the way.

So let’s all try to be the kind of friend who helps, supports, and affirms, okay?