My name is Thea, and I’ve been living with schizoaffective depressive type for a long time. It’s been maybe fifteen years since I started going to the psychiatric hospital. I’ve identified a few triggers that contribute to increased symptoms of schizophrenia. I try to live a life that’s simple and that doesn’t contribute to symptoms. [...]
We use anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 of the 171,476 basic words that make up the English language. Words make us human. Novelists use words to tell stories that make us laugh or cry. Lawyers mix words and confound us with pages of secret code. Language entertains us; we use it to share joy, to [...]
By the age of 6, I had been to see more psychiatrists than I ever wanted to - 6,10,15 – I’ve lost count. So many faces they just disappear. My parents searched far and near for help but all they got was sorry there is nothing for her here. Unnecessary pain and suffering dominated my [...]
When I first started writing my novel “(Not) Alone”, it began as a way for me to see the things I have done on paper, a way for me to constantly remind myself that I can overcome anything. I began it as a fictional story with the characters named after other people in my life [...]
Let me preface this by saying this: five years ago, I was diagnosed with #BipolarDisorder, #Depression, and Severe #Anxiety. After fifteen years of dealing with it alone, I had finally sought help. I went so long because I was ashamed of not being ‘normal’, but I have come to realize that none of us are [...]
I was always an anxious child. I was anxious about serious things, like potentially losing my parents, and I was anxious about silly things, like glitter (seriously! glitter!). I remember seeing a therapist starting when I was around 10 years old, because of my anxiety. Depression reared its ugly head during my adolescent years, and [...]
I work in the mental health/addiction field. While I came to it gradually, it is obvious that my childhood, growing up in a family full of mental health and addiction problems had something to do with this career choice. There were numerous suicides when I grew up; enough, in fact, for me to take a [...]
One sunny afternoon, I was feeling good and gearing up for my first ever art show. I had posted some photos on Instagram in anticipation of my big night. I opened the app and under my last post, was a comment by a stranger berating me about my weight. A total stranger wrote, “maybe you [...]
For the 10 years my boyfriend Dave and I were together, I knew of his emotional pain that stemmed from the death of his mother in 2001; she passed away from lupus. I also knew of his lifelong intense pain and depression from a complicated upbringing of severe narcissistic abuse. Some prefer to look the [...]
I dreamt of a snake shedding its skin. And as it did, I killed it. In fact, I suffocated it. In its place, a smaller, shiny snake appeared. I felt okay with this one. I awoke from this dream feeling shaken; it stayed with me for days. Ever had one like this? A dream so [...]
