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Congratulations Ann Cummings

Ann Cummings holding her 2007 NAMI San Diego Recovery Advocate Award.

Nora Vargas' Introduction of Ann Cummings.

I am pleased to present the 2007 Inspiration Award for Recovery Advocate to Ann Cummings. The award goes to an individual exhibiting a strong recovery from mental illness and who has then gone on to advocate for better care or recovery for other people with mental illness.

Ann is a very unique person. Immediately she puts people at ease and conveys a gentle wisdom that comes from a lifetime of perseverance, courage and survival. She has taken life events with the potential to devastate and turned them into stepping stones on her journey of recovery.

Mental illness runs in Ann’s family. Her grandfather and father suffered terribly with bipolar disorder and her uncle with schizophrenia. Tragically, all three took their own lives, including---later---her 13 year-old-son who suffered with depression.

Ann struggled with her own depression from the age of 17 when, even as an enthusiastic cheerleader on the football field, she felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. Since then, Ann has struggled through numerous medication changes, has been hospitalized for months at a time, and has participated in many types of therapy. Thankfully, she is now stable. But Ann hasn’t just survived. She has taken her tragic experiences and mixed them with her own brand of courage and hope to create a legacy of recovery that is truly inspirational.

Please join me in recognizing Ann Cummings, NAMI San Diego’s Recovery Advocate Award-winner for 2007.

Ann Cummings’ Acceptance Remarks.

I am honored to accept the Inspiration Award for the Recovery Advocate for the year.

I would like to thank my family -- my mother, my sister, my brother, my daughter and my son in law -- for their belief in my recovery even when I was enveloped in total darkness. Their support offered me light when I couldn't see any hope at all. Without their love and devotion I would not have had the courage to face my challenges.

I would like to thank my friends for their support and confidence in my path of recovery. Their laughter, love and lives carried me past the difficult times into the faith and expectation that I could live effectively with my mental illness.

NAMI came into my life as the result of a suggestion by my therapist at the Tri-City outpatient program, as I searched for a constructive and meaningful contribution I could make to the community. My initial responsibilities consisted of performing general office work two hours a week at the North Coastal affiliate office.

I became a consumer representative of the NAMI North Coastal board and was soon afforded numerous opportunities to become involved in the new consumer programs. In 2001 I participated in Peer-to-Peer training which introduced me to the concept of recovery.

According to Kathryn McNulty of Peer-to-Peer, recovery means gathering the healed bits and the not-so-healed bits and doing the best we can in the moment to live with it all. That is self-advocacy: the assertion that we are OK as we are, taken in total, always doing our best to live well.

Work in Peer-to-Peer opened more possibilities for my own recovery as well as assisting others in theirs. This training educates us in understanding that recovery is a process which includes relapses from which we gain self-awareness and understanding. No longer faced with the devastation of our illness, we realize that our healing is an ever widening upward spiral. I am now mentoring my seventeenth Peer-to-Peer class in five years.

Later in 2001, Kamala Castle, then NAMI San Diego’s In Our Own Voice Coordinator, opened the In Our Own Voice training to North Coastal consumers and I was trained as a presenter. Participation in this program has allowed me to inform and educate the public about the journey of recovery.

NAMI San Diego then initiated a newly rolled-out national support group program called NAMI C.A.R.E. (Consumers Advocating Recovery through Empowerment). Becoming a facilitator gave me a new perspective on recovery. CARE takes people wherever they are in their journey of recovery and shares with them tools which will give them back the power of their own lives.

I have had the privlege of learning Peer-to-Peer, In Our Own voice and NAMI C.A.R.E. with NAMI San Diego's guidance and support. I now coordinate these programs for the North Coastal and Inland affiliates. NAMI North Coastal has encouraged and assisted me in developing these programs with enthusiatic and generous support.

Recovery is reclaiming my dignity and self-worth, purpose and value. It is the establishment of new hopes and dreams based upon where I am now rather than where I would have been had I not become ill. I have become the person I was meant to be.

Yes I have mental illness. Yes it is likely I will need to be on medication and in therapy for the rest of my life. But this isn’t a death sentence. I can accept my illness, learn to live well with it and go on in spite of it. And I know others can too.

I’ll leave you tonight with a favorite quote: There is no greater journey that requires noble courage than exploring what lies within us. Strive for the fullness and beauty of life. Find your deep, personal meaning in the sole existence of your own life. Prevail by finding your own influence and power.

Thank you very much.

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