The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
1998-1999

Leigh Woosley
Reporter, Tulsa World
Tulsa, Okla., USA

TOPIC: In a series of articles, profile adults who function within the workplace and social settings, despite living with anxiety disorders.

Mental Health Bell Tolls Message of Awareness
A Tulsa group marks 50 years of progress in the field. Iron chains and shackles that once restrained people in asylums now form the 300-pound Mental Health Bell. It is the symbol of the National Mental Health Association. Beyond that, the bell tells a story of progress, of society relinquishing its fear-fed prejudice of mental illness.

A Place to Feel Safe: A Center for Gay Teens Tries to Combat Depression with Support
Zachary Bundy described the formula for suicide. A gun in his bedroom and a belief that he didn't belong in the world. Bundy said he'd been shunned and castigated for being gay by his fundamentally religious parents. Unwilling to bear what he called his family's rejection and attempts to revert him to heterosexuality, he left home.

Therapists Struggle to Help Families Reconnect with a Child Unable to Love
Charley Edwards balanced himself on the edge of the couch, his leg bobbing up and down with the energy of an 11-year-old. Charley, who goes by CJ, flipped through a small photo album bulging with pictures of his young life, beginning with images of a caramel-skinned baby in a portrait studio to a boy proud of his police costume on a recent Halloween.

In the Genes
Lacey Leifeste has done push-ups in the bathroom of the Wild Fork restaurant to feel better about eating a meal there. She's run miles to counteract the calories in a piece of chicken.

Generation Rx
Legal drug use becoming epidemic with teens Cough syrup, cold medicine and doctor-prescribed drugs ubiquitous to bathroom medicine cabinets are staples in a teenage drug epidemic that experts fear could match or surpass that of cocaine in the 1980s.

Fear Factor: Anxiety disorders Disrupt the Lives of 40 Million Americans
I must be dying, she thought. Dying or going crazy. Jane Vantine's heart was pounding. Sounds from the party around her swirled and separated her from reality. Her body was racing, wouldn't slow down.

Counting Coup
For Kevin Gaylor, sexual and violent obsessions were monsters attacking his brain.  He fought, and sometimes still does, a churning fear that he will hurt someone. He thought about hurting his beloved dog, Bella, or abusing a child.

Reining in the Fear
The beach sand is as white as the Arabian horse that Becky Moyer rides in her dream. The sun crests the horizon; the world is asleep. And Moyer is at peace. The dream seemed improbable to a little girl in small-town Kansas, but the older Moyer grew, the less likely it became. Then it seemed absolutely impossible.

Crossing the Gulf: Leanna Weaver Learned to Calm the Waves of Terror and Take Back her Life
Leeanna Weaver is toasting with a glass of white wine at an outdoor café in southern France. Her curly auburn hair is pulled away from her smiling face, and her green eyes are glowing. She is there and in the moment, an event to be celebrated after fighting anxiety for years.

Thought Control: The Cure for Anxiety Disorders Remains Elusive
A cure for anxiety disorders does not exist. It's not like a headache, easily treated with an aspirin. What might temper one person's anxiety won't always do so for someone else. Treatment is oftentimes guesswork, a juggling act of medication, psychotherapy or both.