Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Good-byes

This is my one-hundredth post to my blog. It is also my last. It will remain available on Facebook and Blogspot, but I doubt that I will add anything to it.

I’m stopping here because I think I’ve shared all that I need to share (also, one hundred is a nice round number). In TV talk, I’ve “jumped the shark.” (I vividly remember that episode of Happy Days, and thinking that Fonzie had gone too far).

I started this blog for selfish reasons. I needed a forum in which to open up, so that I would feel less shame about my illness. I wanted to help my family and friends understand me better. I needed to feel that I was doing something useful while my wife was in hospital and I was off work.

I was expecting a handful of readers. Instead, I got several thousand.

The internet is a crazy thing.

You have been reading Upsy/Downsy along with people from twenty different countries. Most are from Canada and the U.S., but there are also readers from Santiago, Chile; London, England; Paris, France; and even more in Norway, Finland, Venezuela, Croatia, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa and on and on. I enjoyed receiving e-mail from around the globe.

Mental illness exists all over the world. I worry about the stigma in Canada, but know that it is much worse in many other places.

I hope that all of you who have read Upsy/Downsy, if you aren’t already, can share a little bit of your understanding with others - to help lift some of the burden from the shoulders of the mentally ill around you.

If you are living with mental illness, I hope that this blog has provided some comfort, and that you find the tools and the support that you need to heal.

Thanks for reading. Be well, my friends.

D’Arcy

6 comments:

Len Stanga said...

Extraordinary. This has been a great read. I must say this has done more to open my mind about mental illness than anything before. I imagine how great it would be to read this if you had lost a loved one to mental illness, or if you were struggling with it yourself. This gives so much insight - to see inside a world that is normally closed off. Thanks for doing this, and for doing it so eloquently.

Reanna said...

It's sad to lose you from the blogosphere, D'Arcy. I'm so glad you did this and were able to reach so many people in so short a time. That just goes to show how much the world needs people like you who are courageous enough to tell the truth.

I'll be keeping your link on my blog for as long as you keep this page up.

And this doesn't mean I won't be encouraging people to vote for you for those Canadian Blog Awards you were nominated for. :)

http://cdnba.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/2012-canadian-blog-awards-round-1/

D'Arcy said...

Thank you both! I really appreciate these comments, more than you know. Reanna - thanks for being my blogging mentor. I will blog again, but probably on a different topic. :)

Michelle said...

Good to hear you plan to blog again. Take care.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing this blog. I have manic depression myself and this blog made me smile and laugh out loud when nothing else did :)

D'Arcy said...

Thanks, Kat. You just made my day. I'm glad that my blog made you smile.

All the best,

D'Arcy