Jerry's Recovery Story Part 1
The Struggle of Life
In 1995 I was diagnosed with a mental illness called “Bipolar Disorder "for the second time, the first time was in 1982. I inherited this illness from my mother’s side of the family. There were five of us children, four boys and one girl, I’m the youngest. Not one of my siblings escaped inheriting a mental illness with one diagnosis or another. I have worn many hats and made a lot of money in my day. Unfortunately I was manic most of the time. Mania is the side of my bipolar disorder which makes me higher than any street drug ever could. I would be high for weeks, even months at a time. During these years I had several businesses, and millions of dollars passed through my hands. I’ve had as many as ten businesses going at the same time. I’ve done everything from building bridges, condos and private homes to airport jet hangers. The story always ended the same: I’d lose everything, and I mean everything. I went from being close to a millionaire at one point or another to being on welfare the next. What would happen is after weeks or even months of this manic behavior I would crash, hit rock bottom. This was the depressive side of my Bipolar Disorder. I have attempted to end my life several times. I thank God I never succeeded because my life today is where I want it to be. Things really started to change for me after connecting with my psychiatrist, Doctor Cindy Boyack, and when I began taking the right medication to aid in controlling my illness. I also went to years of self-help groups and counseling. This gave me the education I needed to help me live with my illness. Today I facilitate my own self-help group called “Connections”. Connections offers people with mental or physical barriers from all walks of life a weekly one-and-a-half hour group that gives them the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings. This gives them the validation they need and makes them feel less alone. Another big factor that changed my life and made me who I am today is my mother Isabel Bradley. After years in an abusive marriage my mom came to live with me in Portland, Maine. Before moving to Maine with me my mom only remembered the abusive alcoholic I once was and how I even mentally abused her while I was getting drunk with my stepfather, her second husband. To this day these memories still haunt me. Even knowing what I put her through my mother assured and convinced me that she totally forgave me for everything I had done to her. She wiped the slate clean and we started over. My mom and I were always very close but a real bond was formed between us when she was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer. The cancer rapidly spread to her brain. I was the one that told my mother she had only six weeks to live. I remember crying so hard and praying at the same time that I could barely get the words out. In my mother’s true fashion she ended up comforting me. She said, “Please don’t cry, I love you”. The hospital had to discharge her because Medicare would no longer pay for her to stay in the hospital. The doctors told me she’d have to be placed in a nursing home. All my mother wanted to do was go home with me and to her two kitties Jackie & Rose. As far as I was concerned there wasn’t an option, I took her home! My mom died October 30, 1999, one day short of her favorite holiday - Halloween. In memory of my beloved mother I have started my own non-profit organization, which gives people with mental and physical barriers along with senior citizens the opportunities to change their lives. My organization, “The Bradley Foundation of Maine,” has been a 501 (c) 3 non-profit educational organization for six years as of May 24th, 2004. With the Bradley Foundation of Maine I offer refurbished and new computers at low cost. Our refurbished come with an XP operating system, Office 2007 Pro Plus and Microsoft Anti Virus.
Our computers start at one hundred thirty dollars without the monitor and our new computers start at around four hundred dollars. I offer low cost training as well.
The Bradley Foundation of Maine has had our Connections group for eight years now at Maine Medical Center’s Dana Center, on Wednesdays from 3:30PM to 5:00PM and also at our new main office on 424 Main Street in Westbrook Maine on Tuesdays from 5:30PM to 7:00PM. We also now offer a new writing group called “Writing from the Inside Out” at the Dana Center on Mondays from 2:30PM to 4:00PM. We also no offer a brand new group called Art Works a creative art class on Tuesdays from 10:30AM to 12:00PM.
It took years of hard work to develop my business plan along with my feasibility study with the Department of Labor’s Vocational Rehabilitation Services. I worked closely with Kim Waite, my VR counselor, for over seven years.
From the beginning with the Bradley Foundation of Maine I was honored with the American Red Cross’ “Real Hero’s Award”, for Health, Human and Social Services, the NAMI Award for “Peer of the Year”, the “Jefferson Award for Consumer Educator” and the “Lilly Reintegration Award for Mentorship”, to name only a few.
For over ten years I have gone to audiences telling my story of ongoing recovery. I have done presentations for Shalom House for six years and have done them for the Bradley Foundation of Maine for another nine years. I have presented to over twenty thousand individuals in the State of Maine and nationally. My largest audience was nine hundred individuals for the Eli Lilly Drug Company. I have also done workshops about the Bradley Foundation of Maine and my story of recovery in the State of Maine and nationally.
For five years I worked for Shalom as a Peer Support Specialist and I have worked for Amistad as a Peer Support Specialist at the Maine Medical Centers Emergency Department for eight years. I was the first person in the State of Maine to set foot into the Emergency Room a a Peer Support Specialist and still remember the fist individual I sat and talked with and supported that night.
I am on several councils, boards of directors and other committees. I am very active in the mental health community. I have been on several training videos along with being on “webmd.com”.
It’s only because of what I went through in my life that I became the man I am today. Being who I am now gives me great peace. I can finally say my prayers at night and fall asleep without having nightmares of my past or fears of my future.
I have found that life is only what you put into it and helping people help people is my passion of peace of mind. Yes, I make mistakes, but who doesn't. I am told by my Priest to ask myself what would Jesus have done before caring through a thought.
This year I have several goals for my Foundation and one of them is to start-up a program to help individuals State wide receive computers at low cost with low shipping rates and a manual of how to use them. A computer can help break the isolation of being totally alone, it helped me back in 1995.
I want to thank everyone who has helped myself and The Bradley Foundation of Maine over the past fifteen years.
