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 an 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.

Mental Health Care Coverage Endorsed (link no longer available) 
As a federal employee, U.S. Rep. John Sullivan's health insurance gives equal coverage to mental and physical illness. All private insurance companies should do the same, he says, and he's preparing legislation to mandate that.

For Years Adults Have Preached...
For years adults have preached at them, but teenagers at the Youth Listening Conference on Wednesday gave grown-ups and earful about problems facing the young generation

Teens Share Stories at Mental Illness Forum (link no longer available) 
It's not unusual for Laura Tropepe to slit her wrists or to cut herself on purpose. The scars on her body attest to that. Tropepe, 18, stood Wednesday evening in a gray hooded sweatshirt behind a small lectern. With a soft voice and little eye contact, she shared her story of mental illness.

Report: Elderly Suicide Rate Soars
The high suicide rate in elderly people suggests depression haunts many older Americans, but experts say for those 65 and older mental health care is inadequate, inaccessible and underfunded.

ADHD Ignores Gender
Like many girls with attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, Mollie Conyers struggled for years with school and friends before she got help.

Medicare Provides Little Help for Seniors with Mental Health Needs (link no longer available) 
More than 41 million senior citizens depend either completely or partially on Medicare, yet the federal insurance program usually covers only 50 percent of costs for mental health care but 80 percent for physical care.

Campaign Benefits Child Abuse Network (link no longer available) 
We're in the middle of Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month, and it's a good time to remind Tulsa about Pennies from Heaven, a fund-raising campaign that turns heartache into help.

Family Meeting: Seminar Addresses Issues of Adoption
Along with the joys of adoption come challenges, and oftentimes attachment is one of them. If this is an issue for you or someone you know, go listen to local psychologist Mark Sadler address adult attachment styles at the adoption support group that Catholic Charities has scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in Flecher Hall at Christ the King Catholic Church.

No Kidding
Studies show people without children are less depressed. The joys of parenthood don't outweigh the woes, according to a recent study that found parents show more signs of depression than adults without kids.

Sheltering Children
Laura Dester center houses children who were abused at home.

From Surviving to Thriving (link no longer available) 
A local support group is opening its doors to all who were sexually abused as children. The group was started with the intention of helping those molested by the clergy of the Catholic church in a scandal that rocked the nation not long ago.

Saving Children  
Ha Thi Crick is a tiny woman with delicate wisps of hair escaping from her dark ponytail that trails down her back. Her eyes are soft. So is her voice, still tinged by the accent of her native Vietnam, which she left nearly 40 years ago to attend college in the United States.

The Glass is Half Full (link no longer available) 
Happiness. Isn't it what we all want? For all the time we spend searching for it, we need to look no further than ourselves, according to positive psychology, a movement gaining popularity because it says people--not the outside world--create their own happiness

Someone to Look up to
Drugs. Gang activity. Lack of parental involvement. Together it's what Kevin Maxville calls the "plight of north Tulsa." It's where Maxville lives, where his kids go to school and where he's working to make a better raising ground for children.