Understand My Sorrow Challenge

Lilly's Message:

Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder.

I could go on and on. These are very real and very painful illnesses, and yet they are one of the most neglected, misunderstood, ignored and stigmatized ones as well. These are demons that destroy lives, break human spirits and annihilate happiness. Millions of people struggle with them, fight daily battles. Some are lost and some are won. I hope that one day none will be lost and that's why I decided to host this reading challenge. The purpose of it is to increase awareness and understanding of a mental illness. In my small way I wish to help people see through the stereotypes and the fog of ignorance surrounding the serious medical conditions under an umbrella of mental illness. These conditions are deadly when untreated and more often than not still pose a risk of death after a person receives proper medical treatment. The statistics are frightening and below I am providing you with a couple of links so you can read for yourselves.

Anyway, the rules for the challenge are pretty easy.

It starts today but I would like to make it an ongoing process, therefore there will not be a deadline in the nearest future. If I decide that the no deadline rule somehow doesn't work, I will let you know at least six months in advance. The only requirement is that you read a minimum of one book on the subjects provided below.

• Depression
• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

There are of course many more disorders that we could talk about but for now I'd like to focus on the four.

So, you have to read a minimum of four (4) books, one on each subject.

I am including a button on the side on my blog that you can grab just for this challenge and put it on your blog.

Also, when you write an introductory post about this challenge, please come back and sign up under McLinky.

Optimally, I would love for this to spark discussion. I'd like to talk with all and any of you. If you read a book or two, or more and they evoke strong emotions withing you, I'd love to invite you to write a guest post sharing them with me and other readers. If you have a story to tell, that's even better. I would be happy to read your story and invite others to do it as well. It doesn't matter if it's on my blog as a guest post or your own blog, as long as it's under the Understand My Sorrow banner.

Another important thing: you do not have to be a blogger to join in. If you don't have a blog, you can leave me a comment letting me know that you're joining and when you decide which books to read, when you read any of them and want to talk about them, email me and I will, with your permission spotlight your thoughts, stories, even book reviews on my blog.



***I am SO glad that Lilly has decided to host a challenge of this nature. I suffer from Depression and OCD. I feel that this will be a great help to me.....and hopefully others. To join in, please visit Lilly's blog....click on Lilly's Message above***