YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Great podcast. I can relate having grown up two towns over from Ronkonkoma (wonderful name for a wonderful town... not). It's truly in the armpit of Long Island and can be an awful place to grow up if you are even slightly out of the norm. Fortunately, when I was in Jr. High we picked up and moved to Stony Brook - a university town with something resembling culture and community.

Also - being bipolar myself her description of the highs and lows had me nodding in agreement. Her description pretty much matched my description.

So Brenda ... if you read this.. thanks. And thanks Paul for having her on. And thanks for reawakening the nightmare that was living near Ronkonkoma

I grew up on Long Island too. Also, I'm Italian, and I make some mean meatballs in sauce....

I just listened to this podcast for the second time. I'm really grateful for people like Brenda, who are brave enough to fight through the obvious fear and anxiety they feel. There are a lot of us who have been abused and don't feel like we have a voice. In my case, it was a family member. I was 30 before I finally understood what happened, and realized I had spent my whole life around this disgusting person, mistakenly showing him the respect that I was taught to show for my elders. People who take advantage of children are the lowest kind of monsters.

Also, I cringed a bit when Brenda said that some people have told her the abuse she suffered wasn't "as bad as being raped." Holy crap. Those are people who have never been betrayed by someone they trusted to protect them. The long term effects of abuse are incredibly painful. Thank you for talking about your life, Brenda.