Woman works to spread mental health awareness

May 20--Wunderlich, 49, suffers from severe mental depression and has been on and off medication since her 30s.

She graduated from Southeastern Community College in 2010 and finished a semester at Iowa State University before coming home the following January.

The last three years proved to be so bad, Wunderlich wasn't even aware of it.

"It affected me so bad, I became like a paralyzed state," she said. "It's not a fun place to revisit. I was in such a fog that it affected my everyday living activities."

"It affected me so bad, I became like a paralyzed state. It's not a fun place to revisit. I was in such a fog that it affected my everyday living activities." Peggy Wunderlich

Wunderlich wouldn't shower and would "pick" at her skin, leaving marks on her arms, torso and legs. Restless leg syndrome kept her awake at night and zapped her energy.

Despite that, she is happily married with a family and never has smoked or done drugs.

Wunderlich was active with the SCC Chapter of Pi Theta Kappa honor society and served as the Iowa region fundraising coordinator.

She was working at Winegard, belonged to the Blackhawk Booster Club and served as an alumni member of the SCC student board.

"They don't even know," she said. "So many people don't even know."

It was a fellow employee at Winegard, Jamie Dengler, who knew something wasn't right and confronted her Jan. 31.

"She goes, 'Peggy, we need to sit down and talk,' and I just cried," Wunderlich said. "I was just so embarrassed and didn't want the other employees wondering what is wrong. I just couldn't stop crying, and Jamie and I just talked."

She since has stopped work and has gone through 10 rounds of electrical convulsive therapy, or ECT, which intentionally triggers brief seizures.

The treatments can change brain chemistry and reverse some mental illness symptoms. It usually works when other treatments are unsuccessful.

She tried about everything else.

"I tell you what, that scared the heck out of me, but I was desperate," Wunderlich said. "Just recently. I was scared, but I was so desperate because I wanted my life back. Something needed to change because I wasn't living life. I was numb. It became to the point where I didn't feel anymore."

"Literally, each and every time I went in there, I prayed to God," Wunderlich said. "But the ECTs worked, praise God.

"I mean, it was like the fog was lifted. I'm still at a very delicate stage, but the fog, that's why I believe in miracles."

Wunderlich said her journey is undesirable but wants to continue by educating and helping others.

"The things I've experienced is what is going to enable me to help more people now, and that's my goal," she said.

That goal begins with a trip to a mental health conference June 2 in Alexandria, Va. The four-day conference.

"It's about intervention and innovation before Stage 4" Wunderlich said, talking about the final stage of a chronic disease process. "We've got to get the awareness out. You don't wait until a person hits Stage 4. If you catch it at the beginning, it can be treated."

Wunderlich has started a GoFundMe account and a bank account at F&M Bank in Burlington to raise $1,900 for the conference.

Both accounts are under Wunderlich's name and are called, "Pay It Forward, Just Because."

Anyone interested in contributing can visit the website www.gofundme.com/u37y4a2a2 or deposit money into the F&M Bank account. Seven people have donated $175 in the last nine days toward the cause.

"I feel almost guilty even asking, but I believe in my community," Wunderlich said. "I'm not one to ask for help. Obviously if I was, I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now."

Wunderlich attended a rally Saturday in Mount Pleasant protesting the closure of the mental health institute there. More than half of the 83 employees at the Mount Pleasant facility have been laid off since Gov. Terry Branstad announced plans to close it.

"We need to not let that happen," Wunderlich said. "If they privatize that business, it's not going to be a state facility, it'll be a business. And we all know business is making money. If it's state run, they can't turn patients away. If it's a business, they can."

The politics need to be left out of the conversation, Wunderlich said, because people's lives are at stake.

"Depression doesn't discriminate," Wunderlich said. "Depression sneaks up on you in the middle of the night like a monster. You can't get it to go away. It's real and it stays. The only way it'll go away is with treatment, therapy and counseling."

Wunderlich is waiting for a decision about long-term disability but said it's one day at a time.

"In the past when people ask me how I was, normally I would say, 'I'm OK,' but I'm not," Wunderlich said. "I said that for many years, 'Oh I'm OK,' when I wasn't."

She compared herself to a volcano.

"It just boils and simmers as it waits to erupt," Wunderlich said. "My volcano has erupted. And then the stuff that flows out of it has flowed down, and I'm here, but it's hot.

"That's where I'm at, in a very delicate state. But it's beginning to simmer, but it's still so hot, and I'm not well, but I look well, but I'm not."

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