by Paul Caccamise
Daily Lobo
Anna Tabor was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late '90s after she became obsessed with the singer Sting.
"I got all this information on him and inundated myself with it 24-7," Tabor said. "I study dead classicists and was convinced that Sting was one in the making. I was sure that his soul was in grave danger."
On Oct. 31, 1997, she flew to England to save Sting "from the devil's clutch," she said.
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"I stayed in England for almost a year, in which I made many pilgrimages out to Sting's castle," she said.
Tabor was part of a discussion called "In Our Own Voices: Living with Mental Illness" held in the SUB on Monday. About 50 faculty, staff and students attended.
The presentation was organized by the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Human Resources at UNM and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The presentation is part of an effort to interest students in creating a NAMI group on campus.
"The NAMI On Campus is both for people who have had this struggle, and for family members who are affected by another member's emotional or mental balance," said Craig Munson, a therapist at the Counseling and Therapy Services at UNM.
He said the presentation was organized to destigmatize people with mental illnesses.
"The whole purpose is to create a forum to increase the awareness and dispel myths about people with mood disorders and different problems," he said.
Tabor, along with Michelle Holtby, who has bipolar disorder, talked about how they have successfully dealt with their illnesses.
After the last pilgrimage to Sting's English estate, Tabor was able to get Sting's attention. He nearly had her arrested.
Holtby's plunge into bipolar disorder was also difficult, she said.
"It began when I was in college," Holtby said. "In the fall and winter I am more depressed, and in the spring and summer I'm more on the hypo-manic side."
The psychiatric definition of mania includes profuse and rapidly changing ideas, excessive sexuality, intense irritability and lack of sleep. Holtby eventually had to be hospitalized during one of her manic periods, she said.
Both speakers said it was difficult to accept their illnesses. They agreed they didn't want to see themselves as being weak for having a mental illness.
After hospitalization, Holtby was convinced she had been misdiagnosed and the medication harmed her body.
After stopping her medication she had to be hospitalized due to another manic episode.
"It was after the second hospitalization that I fully accepted my imbalance," she said. "It sank in that it is real, and it was something I was going to have to learn to live with."
The speakers also discussed the treatment of their disorders.
Holtby and Tabor found a balanced lifestyle necessary for dealing with disorders. Support from family and friends is also crucial for them, as well as a connection with their spirituality, they said.
The last section of the presentation allowed speakers to share their successes and hopes for the future.
"Being part of a community has been really essential, not only with recovery but also helping me as a person," Tabor said. "As far as dreams go, I want my master's (degree). I want that piece of paper. And someday, probably not today, I'd like to get married."
Holtby said the discussion went well, and that hopefully this opened up doors for people to share their experiences.
"Who doesn't have a family member, co-worker or themselves have a diagnosis and are too ashamed or scared to talk about it?" She said.
