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Recovery In Stanislaus County, CA
April 07, 2006
"J" was born and raised in Stanislaus County. She has had a series of adventures which lead her to the Stanislaus Homeless Outreach Program (SHOP) in Modesto, California.
School
Even though "J" started to show symptoms of depression in high school, she enrolled in Sacramento State and started her college career. While there, she had a severe depressive episode and received ECT treatment. "J" eventually finished her degree at CSU Hayward in 1974.
International Adventures
She then went to England with a boyfriend, left him after a few months, and ended up teaching English as an au pair in Italy. From there she went to Crete and was married to a Greek citizen six months later. She and her husband came back to the U.S. and lived with their two children in California from 1976-1982. "J" remembers that during her pregnancies she felt the best she'd ever felt.
The family returned to Crete in 1982, and "J's" symptoms again increased to the point where she decided to come back to the U.S. in 1988 and get treatment. During this time she became clean and sober and received psychiatric treatment. When she returned to Crete in 1990, she had her first manic break. In a short period of time, she divorced her husband and married an American Armed Forces airman. Not long after that, she went back to the U.S. for treatment. She again divorced, and stayed with her mother and her kids in Stanislaus County.
Over the next decade, "J" worked at several jobs and was successful for periods of time. She was taking medication which helped with her depression and anxiety and was maintaining her sobriety. However, eventually she cycled up again, and the traveling began anew. She took a trip to Lisbon. She went to Nashville. She used some inheritance money to pay for training in England, but never completed the courses. She came back to Stanislaus County, broken and broke.
"J" Meets SHOP
"J" started treatment with a Stanislaus County regional team, and finally started to understand what "bi-polar" means. She attended AA meetings, and found out about SHOP. At this point she had been staying on a relative's couch for months with no money and nowhere to go. She was homeless, had lost hope, and had lost her sense of self.
During the time she has been a member of SHOP, "J" has regained her life. She has moved into a permanent apartment. She is receiving appropriate medical treatment, medications, and psychotherapy. "J" says that, most of all, it is the quality of the relationship she has with her SHOP team which has helped her heal. Although she did not want to apply for public benefits, she came to understand that she needed to take a break and recuperate her mental and physical health. She was eventually approved for SSI which helped her move on to her next goals.
"J" has said many times that SHOP saved her life: she did the work she needed to do, but would never have been able to without the flexibility, support, and understanding of the SHOP team.
The Future
Now, "J" has completed training as an English as a Second Language Instructor. She is again returning to Crete to be with her children and hopes to get a job as an English teacher there. "J" is not sure what the future holds, but she knows she has a future, and that's enough.
