New Directions Support Group Unveils New Website

For 25 years, I've run the support group New Directions. It's for people with depression, bipolar disorder and their loved ones.

How did I get into this racket? Simple. I was diagnosed in 1984 at age 38 with manic-depression or bipolar disorder. I took meds for nearly 17 years until lithium ruined my kidneys. When I got off the drug, I was shocked to discover my bipolar was gone!

According to scientific thinking, this is not supposed to happen. It's supposed to be a lifetime illness. I'm proof that it can go away. And I am not alone.

Our support group, which does wonders for people, has had a website for about a decade. An unwieldy one, at that, which was not designed for all the information I'm constantly cramming on there.

I'll read something in the paper or on the Internet and immediately it's added to our homepage.

Time to get a new website. Something wieldy. As well as eye-catching.

Lucky for me, my son Dan is not only a new father - hello Baby Grace! - but a "web developer" as well. Please don't think I understand that term, but apparently he does. It's how he makes his living at AWeber.

"When I get time, Mom," said Dan, "I'll design a website for you that will be easy for you to load yourself."

He'd taught me how to load the old website, but it was hard for the viewer to read.

One section was called Letters from Ruth, another word for Blog.

When I closed down the old website for good, I wanted to save all my precious entries on Letters from Ruth. I copied and pasted what I'd been doing from 2004 to 2008. Included were my fantastic award-losing poems such as "God Wore White" and "Rustle of his Skirts."

It came to 469 pages!

When Dan finally presented me with a WordPress site, he was very patient as he explained the fine points over the phone.

Magically, I understood!

Click here for the new website.

Dan estimated he spent a total of 8 hours transferring information from the old site to the new.

And it didn't cost us a penny! Plus I got to hear about baby Grace's exploits. At eight months old, she's crawling around the house investigating everything. Hence, up go the gates, and in go the socket sealers. The house is a hazard zone.

Look, the new website isn't perfect. I do like the photo Dan selected for the "header." I estimate it will take me a couple of months to put all the info where it logically fits, which means removing things from "here" and putting them "there."

Maybe we'll put some videos on there as well. Dan made sure that our new website has no limitation on space. People are now getting used to spending much more time doing their reading on the web.

New Directions publishes a wonderful yearly magazine called The Compass. For many years, Janssen Pharmaceutica of Titusville, NJ, published it gratis. What fun it was driving to Titusville, getting lost along the way, and then finding the palatial building, across the street from a farm with real cows, and meeting with printer Ed Quispe, orig. from Peru. Hope he's still there.

After Janssen, we managed to scrape the barrel to find funds to publish it again. The last issue of 1,000 copies cost over $3,000! I always use Mark Amos of Bux-Mont Stationers in Hatboro. Mark is the absolute best! He also publishes Yes I Can: My Recovery from Bipolar Disorder.  It's the amazing story of when I used to get psychotic or off my rocker.

A nice Jewish girl like me. Bipolar happens!

But if you're lucky, there's a chance your bipolar disorder - manic-depression as we used to call it - will resolve itself later in life and you'll be off meds for good. Check with the doctor and never change your meds without his knowledge and consent.

We have lots of copies of the Compass left, as I want them to last throughout the year. If you see me driving along, flag me down and I'll give you a copy. They're in my trunk, along with my bathing suit and towel.

The phone just rang and my heart lit up. It was Judy K, calling to see how I'm doing after my on April 1.

Judy, who has bipolar is one talented woman who was born to write. She hasn't figured out, however, what exactly she wants to write. Her piece in the last Compass, titled, "Hi I'm Judy K and I'm a Recovering Addict" was a superlative piece of writing. It convinced Judy she must write.

Leave it to me. I specialize in giving people assignments. "Your assignment," I said to Jude, "is to write the first entry in our New Directions' blog."

One of the things this busy wife and mother does is bike-ride every morning. Would you believe she did 31 miles this morning with a friend?

Write about it, Judy.

Come to a meeting! In addition to 5 support meetings a month, we have social events. Our talented members run Mike's Hikes - Ada's Monthly Outing to Great Places in Philadelphia - our Summer BBQ - our new Art-Reach program where we can see cultural events at reduced rates.

This Saturday we host a special program "Hope for Depression" with renowned University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist John O'Reardon. His 90-minute talk will take place in the Classroom at the Willow Grove Giant Supermarket.

Look for these exciting events - and more - on our new website.