Girija,

I am going to attempt a combo reply here. I wanted to respond more to your post of yesterday. I know what you are saying; I think, that in raising awareness, it's as if I am wearing the PD on my sleeve. You don't want the PD to ever overshadow or define you as a person, but this is precisely why we want to raise awareness. The more people who know that we are out there "hiding" behind our meds; the more they see that we are more like them, than different (not a celebrity) and hear what we go through, the PD shrinks away and they see the person first. I think we both actually have the same goal; it's just that ironically we have to exploit the PD in order to desensitize people. I hope that makes sense.

I just love Harley's idea too; and it is more a grounded way of what Rose and I hope to accomplish with raising awareness. We briefly talked of a 501c status for our activist group; the patient centered meeting could definitely be part and funded by what we raise or with grant monies. Please continue on how we might select a venue, program workshops, etc.

A disclaimer: I mentioned several forum members who seemed natural to me for leading workshop--I didn't mean to volunteer them! Just easier to envision how everything might work together.

I will start collecting ideas and interested people may PM me- I am thinking of starting a wiki online for collaborative work...let's see how far this goes.

Laura