Paul Lee

Paul Lee talks about how his whole family suffers from mental illnesses. Abandoned by their father, his mother was left to raise him and his siblings. His father kidnapped... More »

Paul Lee talks about how his whole family suffers from mental illnesses. Abandoned by their father, his mother was left to raise him and his siblings. His father kidnapped the children which highly hurt them mentally and his mother went and took them back causing a mental uproar in the family. Paul got into drugs when he was 12/13 years old, doing it to feel like he could fit in. He knew he had a problem but didn’t know how to fix it – fighting mentally with himself knowing that he could beat it. He eventually took control over himself by wanting to get help. He really started looking into himself and God by being able to find the truth he had in him. He is currently in school trying to complete his education and doesn’t let his mental illness control his life anymore. He now uses his experiences to help others by being a peer counselor.
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My name is Paul Lee. Currently stay in the Mount Oliver area of Pittsburgh, I just recently moved from the North Oakland area as a part of a program that I was in housing... More »

My name is Paul Lee. Currently stay in the Mount Oliver area of Pittsburgh, I just recently moved from the North Oakland area as a part of a program that I was in housing program that I was in relating to mental illness and substance abuse. The program was originally for two years and I’d done such a good job that I was there for three years. Yes so, I’ll just got back to how I originally heard about Voices for our Region. I’m actually a peer counselor at People’s Oakland, I don’t know if you’re familiar with People’s Oakland. I believe that I have accomplished a great deal over the last almost four years of recovery. I thought that maybe you know my personal life experiences and the darkness if you will that I experienced for so many years and being like transformed into this wonderful life I have today. Where the odds was so against me, overwhelmingly against me dealing with mental illness and additional into substance abuse, I thought that it would be a good chance or opportunity to express my unique experience and hopefully bring hope to someone else who may have had similar experiences. I’m originally from Pittsburgh but my dad is from New York in the Bronx, my mom is from Pittsburgh. There was twelve of us, seven boys, five girls. We grew up in inner cities, it was very difficult. My mom and dad split up when we were very young. I was probably about four. She took us back to Pittsburgh because originally she went to New York and met my dad and it didn’t work out. My dad had a very dominant as well as a lot of members, siblings in my family have very dominant predisposition to Schizophrenia and a couple with alcohol addiction. You know, it’s very difficult sometimes to talk about it cause I’m also a recovering addict. So being in the rooms with narcotics anonymous and being in this new way of mental health. The mental health new way of doing things and reinnovations of doing how we look at things in the mental health system. Having courage to disclose personal things can be beneficial to other people, so that’s what I do. My dad’s father is a mystery. Till this very day I don’t even know if he was white or black. There was some secrets that my grandfather was protected from because he did some unthinkable things with his children. And it has, I’m 42 years old and it has come to our attention that a lot of my aunts have died with these secrets and they didn’t want to disclose it because it has just recently come out that he had incestual relations with his daughters and there were other children born that we probably don’t even know exist. And that enhances the ability for increase state of mental illnesses. So it was difficult growing up in urban society feelin different but yet wanting to fit in. And not having the focus or the concentration to feel like we were a part of a bigger society.
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