Next week, October 5th through the 11th, is Mental Illness Awareness Week.  You will see many blogs about mental illnesses from many perspectives; those of people living with mental illnesses, their family, friends, employers and health providers. Some of the blogs will be filled with research, statistics, facts, and the like, while others will be stories of personal journeys.  Next week, you will hear more about my personal journey as a lesbian living with bipolar depressive disorder. I hope that what I write will encourage you to leave a bit of your reaction, your experience or your wisdom in the comments. If you would like to offer a guest post on this blog during that week about your life as a person living with a mental illness, a family member, partner, or friend, use the contact me function and that can be arranged. My wish for this blog  next week is that an experience lived in the dark might be brought into the light in several ways. I hope you participate, but reading or by sharing, in your own way.