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Victor provides us with the history of the horrific abuse he faced growing up and provides the scenario and basis for his multiple personality disorder and multiple, ‘characters,’ surfacing in his life. I have included the order of documents to be read, as he sent them to me: 1.       My essay entitled “IsHopeAStrategy-IDontKnowYouTellMe”-Rev1 – explains my experiences for the last 55 weeks 2.       Email to my circle of care “A quick note” – perhaps a long one too – explains my experiences, the consequences and reflections 3.       My essay entitled “IamSorry-thedoublesidedrazorblade”-Rev1 – explains my position of hearing “I am sorry”  Please understand I know it is a form of empathy, yet after the continued fight with the Ontario Canada MHA system over the last 5 years… I have heard this statement too many times. Below I have included links to his podcast interview and published essay about living with DID, as he sent them to me. 1.       Podcast Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDOjA-mW7i0 2.       Published Essay: https://weareunsinkable.com/living-with-dissociative-identity-disorder-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Characters: “Entities during dissociation” Harris - Destructive, own email address, emails circle of care. Victor - The Poet - Manager and communicator of all personalities. Dissociative poetry author Little Victor - 1st traumatic experience Little Victor - 2nd Suicide attempt 4-10 years old (Suicide Attempts) other suicide attempts have one identity for each X - He has no idea who he is The Beast - Pure violence, animalistic and beats up self Management - No idea who this is. Many more, he states he has about 13 entities that present themselves at various times. Twitter: @VictorJanzen

Abby, another victim of THC Potent Drug from smoking daily for a short period of time. Thankfully her father intervened. Doug, her father, reached out to share her story as a worried dad and mental THC awareness advocate for parents. Listening to him discuss the the experience they had with hospitals to gain admittance and help for drug induced or mental health impaired individuals. If you’ve ever experienced this, it’s heart wrenching on all sides, especially with someon over age. Abby was 18 years old and this also happened to me with my son and my sister. If you find any part of this podcast helpful or meaningful, reach out or comment. We all need to share our stories. Doug reaches out and helps kids on a regular basis. He’s spoken to me about a few and he cares deeply. Abby was having psychotic episodes due to the THC potency. She was given anti-psychotics. Doug can be found and is active on Twitter: @no2potentTHC Abby, we are grateful you are home and well.

John, from the Road to Mental Wellness, joins us for a second update on how he's been. He discusses his new podcast and enlightens us on where he is with his book. He focuses on 'men's health,' and how we can find commonalities between the genders or even those that are binary. We discuss 'covid coma' a bit, please enjoy.

John of "The Bipolar Battle" podcast and mental health advocate on Twitter joins us with his story. He describes his family as coming from the thought of 'mind over matter,' to get over struggles. He's living with Bipolar disorder and emphasizes the idea to 'embrace your journey,' as you live with mental illness. If you would like to follow him you can reach him on Twitter. Twitter: @BipolarBattle Website: thebipolarbattle.com Author of http://amzn.to/3dwkcVc

Luke from the UK shares his journey of mental illness. Please check out his blog at Discusslife.net.

Sharon is a mental health advocate, Emergency Management Field Officer, OFMEM, social worker, disaster responder, volunteer and also a speaker. She lives with PTSD, CPTSD, MDD and OCD and childhood trauma revealed itself in her early twenties. She tells her story beautifully and reveals how 'brushing under the rug,' doesn't help when it comes to childhood trauma. Her story, like many here, is one of hope, survival and recovery. She writes in her blog, PTSDstoriesfromtheedge.com and you can find her on Twitter and Face book. Listen, comment and reach out if you'd like to tell your story. Podcast link: Link Site: PTSD Stories from the Edge Twitter: @SDBak Facebook: (coming soon)

Cameron returns for Season 3 where we get an update on his mental health, since our last episode and open the conversation about diversity in the world and the Covid19 pandemic. #compathy is something we discuss, based on emersing someone into other cultures to help break down the walls of racism. Thoughts about this can be heard in the episode, check it out.

Elle graces us with her delightful demeanor. She’s an artist in true form from her pop culture videos, to her artwork. Stay tuned, she her own podcast coming to share paranormal stories from people that have experienced them. Here’s more information and links from her site: She is a young artist, youtuber, and writer living with ADHD, DPRD, and depression. She cycles between three types of content: Youtube videos about the intersection between pop culture and mental health Writing about asexuality and advocacy (usually on Medium, but I am hoping to expand to other platforms) Vlogs pertaining to mental health and queer things, such as reviewing queer media, my own gray ace/demisexual experiences, and reviewing asexuality in pop culture She still creates art, but her patreon is not focused around it anymore. If you look through old posts, you'll be able to see it. These post types are cycled from week to week. For example, week one would be a youtube video for my main channel, the next week would be asexuality & aromantic advocacy, and the third week would be a vlog. Patreon - patreon.com/secretladyspider Ko-fi- ko-fi.com/secretladyspider Twitter- Twitter.com/scretladyspider Medium - https://link.medium.com/qFLs1SEdJab YouTube Main - YouTube.com/secretladyspider YouTube Vlogs - YouTube.com/secretladyspidervlogs Instagram main - Instagram.com/secretladyspider Art Instagram - Instagram.com/secretladyspiderartist

Skip, a 26 year veteran, physician, author, speaker and MH advocate for individuals suffering depression. His message is prodominately for men, but we also were inspired by his story and it touched out lives too. See our website for links to his social media; https://www.anewdawnaa.com/.

Evan Whitehead, M.Ed @EvanWhitehead00, Nat'l Consultant/Certified Trainer of the @ahaprocess /Dist. Administrator/Educational Consultant/Mental Health Advocate. Building Capacity 2 Achieve Sustainability! It was a pleasure to speak with him and I support all of this efforts, which mimic my efforts in many ways. Therapeutic day school crisis intervention experience, which began his journey into special education, social emotional learning in contained classes; similar to my son's experience in school as well. Academics are secondary to survival and existence in the face of trauma and he, as well as I, has tackled this head on. Please listen and reach out if you feel so compelled. www.strategicpm.us www.strategiclearningsolutions.com Twitter @evanwhitehead00 Voxer EW00 evanwhitehead11@gmail.com

Jody of returns to discuss her road towards advocacy, her struggles and triumphs. She’s a podcast host, trauma trained coach, mental health advocate and Twitter support mentor to many. Her articles can be found on “The Mighty” or read about her in a story, and anthology of women who have survived and become beacons of hope. Jody#BraveWingsTrauma&Crisis Informed Peer Support @ONELASTKICK71

Tracey Maxfield is doing all the things I dream about, she wrote a book about coming out of the Rabbit Hole of depression and is a speaker in schools across the globe. Her philosophy meshes with mine, help teach kids how to cope with the stresses of life, manage anxiety, emotions and how to breathe properly. Our school children are stressed out and you can gain a deeper understanding of her thoughts, listen to the podcast. Podcast link Tracey Maxfield RN., BSN., CDP., GNC©., DDS Speaker, Educator, Consultant, Advocate, Peer Specialist Author: Escaping the Rabbit Hole: my journey through depression NAASCA Ambassador for B.C. Canada Purple Angel Ambassador Cell: 250-826-3535 imfirmier@outlook.com www.traceymaxfield.com https://www.instagram.com/imfirmier/?hl=en https://twitter.com/TraceyMaxfield https://www.facebook.com/escapingtherabbithole/?ref=bookmarks https://www.pinterest.ca/imfirmier/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFfywD2Ql-4gghgzQ7hNrOQ

Welcome Katherine from Butterfly Tears and Kisses blog in her debut video as our third guest to “Ditch the Mask.” Please find her video on our YouTube Channel, where you can also watch all of our Ditch the Mask Campaign videos. Katherine sheds light on why she’s worn masks, as well as identifying why she felt they were put there in the first place. Stigma about mental illness has been a real conversation grabber in both our podcasts and throughout the first few “Ditch the Mask” videos we’ve done. Our hope, along with Katherine, is to rid the world of stigma through dialogue, showing our faces and having candid conversations about the reality of struggles with mental health. Feel free to reach out the Katherine on her blog at: https://butterflytearsandkisses.com/ She’s also active on Twitter: BTearsandKisses Podcast link Video link

Linda worked on the frontlines and as an Incident Commander, where she put 30 years of her life on the line. Her podcast and book tell the story of her life, her struggles and what it’s like to live before, during and after as a California fire-fighter. She lives with PTSD and struggles with the stigma of mental health in the department, amongst friends and tells us her story. You can find her at https://www.encouragegreen.com/ where she offers support and encouragement to others, after a career in fire-fighting or other service where PTSD could be present. First responders struggles are real and her book outlines her 30 year career and offers hope, based on her real life experience. Find her book https://www.encouragegreen.com/book-launch “I was blindsided. That’s probably the best way to describe how it felt, as a perfect storm of forces was brewing, never before experienced by any of us, and descended it’s wrath that day…and changed everything.” - Linda Green Linda Green was the Incident Commander on the devastating Valley Fire, which destroyed almost 2000 structures as it burned across 76,000 acres in the CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, and the heartbreak of lives lost. But in the months that followed this life-altering traumatic event she refers to as “her fire”, she knew something was very wrong, even though life seemed to be marching on as always...until it wasn’t. The nuances were there immediately but were masterfully disguised by her well-worn habits of performance and responsibility. She didn’t yet realize her free fall had begun into her own personal “hellfire”. Linda was diagnosed with a Post-Traumatic Stress Injury just months before her retirement in 2016.

It's me, Dawnette Brenner and I share my experience as a teacher using mindfulness in the classroom. We must make a change in this world, especially where our kids are concerned. #Mindfulness is part of my daily Mental Health check-ins and I'm supported and helped so many kids. Teachers, this is a call to action. Parents inform your teachers. We must get our legislation changed, mental health education/curriculum must be part of our teachers daily lessons. We must make room for it. Be on the look out for a curriculum book soon to be released on TeachersPayTeachers and also through various publishers. I'll be offering training and a class to inform teachers how to incorporate this, it's so easy.

Hayley Wheeler - emotional empowerment coachHAYLEY T WHEELERI work with adults and children to help them conquer their anxiety and depression. I coach people who are ready to challenge and conquer anxiety, depression or stress, to accept their super power and take back control of their life and business.In 2015, I ended up in my pit of despair – depression. I didn’t realise at the time, looking back it was bleak time. Having got the right help and support myself and through my own understanding of anxiety and depression, I created my own coaching model which helps adults and children with their mental health struggles.When I had depression, and when my son had anxiety, we didn’t receive the right help. I felt stuck. I locked myself away as much as I could, still doing what I needed to do, but nothing that I wanted to do. My business was failing, my marriage was failing, and my parenting was failing. I felt like I had no power to control this.My own journey has brought me to the point where I want to work with other people who are feeling stuck in the same way. I want to work with adults and children on giving that sense of power back. My mission is to help people understand the cause of their mental health struggles, and be able to conquer it.I am passionate about the impact coaching can have, as I believe it can not only help manage mental health, but conquer the problem. Emotional empowerment coaching helps you develop skills, tools and knowledge that will support you in finding an emotional balance, and manage your reaction and response to your anxiety, depression or stress, events and situations which affect your mental health. I believe that self knowledge is our super power, it gives us the ability to conquer anything. Read more online at www.hayleytwheeler.co.ukFacebook Hayley T Wheeler https://www.facebook.com/pg/SelfKnowledgeisaSuperpower/about/?ref=page_internalTwitter and insta @hayleytwheelerHayley WheelerAuthor, Emotional Empowerment Coach and business mentorwww.hayleytwheeler.co.ukT: 07966189084E: Hayley@hayleytwheeler.co.ukF: Hayley T WheelerT: @hayleytwheelerI: @hayleytwheeler

Melanie and Krystal founded "Joy for Jan,' after the grief of losing their mom to suicide. They have a blog, videos and products for sale, all supporting scholarships for kids making a difference in their lives. Advocates and sisters, a dynamic duo, began in a small town. Check out their sites and enjoy listening to our podcast interview. Check them out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyforjan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyforjan/ Website: https://www.joyforjan.com/

Sam is a strong Mental Health advocate on Twitter and has been supportive of all people living with mental illness that he's come in contact with on Twitter. He wears several masks and today we talk about a few descriptors he's given them, as he wrote them on his mask. The Video vodcast will release on our youtube channel next week, so stay tuned for that. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6_NdPpIelddMoXjmKCaDp_z4akWdeTGM

Welcome to our introductory podcast for Season 2 of A New Dawn podcast. We are here with, "Bipolar Mama of 3," as she ditches her mask, as my first video & podcast guest of season 2. Please find the video version of this podcast on my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jue8iV4cTwdyEFYESf_OQ The importance of removing the social media mask she’s worn for several years was apparent during our interview. She’s still apprehensive, but yet well aware her bravery will help others. Thank you, Janna, for being the first, meeting you has been a joy. I’m hopeful for our future work together. Watch our "Ditch the Mask," Introductory Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNzhkHCw2ZY&t=11s

Sammie shares her story of being self-sufficient at a young age and living with bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, anxiety and childhood schizophrenia. "My Brain Works Differently Than Yours" She's been supportive of her autistic stepbrother and showed compassion towards her mom with her struggles. She calls herself the #blacksheep of the family.