mental health advocacy

Anne suggested that for my last post this semester I make a list of suggestions for mental health advocacy organizations like Active Minds through the lens of some of what I've been learning about in disability studies.  

Below are a list of questions I hope to explore throughout the semester that concern the relations among disability studies, mental illness, and literature:

What brings me to studying disability studies and mental illness in relation to literature?  The summer after my freshman year I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.  My journey with OCD has been a long one.  There was a time when my obsessions and rituals took up nearly every hour of the day, when I could barely leave my house, and when my parents thought they had lost their daughter forever.  When my ability to function was quickly declining, I decided to take a medical leave of absence from Bryn Mawr my sophomore year.  I enrolled in an intensive OCD treatment program, which gave me back the life I had lost and I was able to return to Bryn Mawr the following year.