What Does your Face Say to the World? I don’t look sick. I look “normal.” That word haunts me. Is normal taking dozens of selfies from different angles to get the best one for social media so that people know how happy you are? No. Tried that. Is it begging someone to love you for [...]
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Being a Bartender with Borderline Personality Disorder. The lights are dim and the music is blaring. There are drink orders being shouted at me while I’m in the middle of mixing, shaking, and pouring cocktails. The bartender working alongside me is on her phone. I roll my eyes. “Ding! Ding! [...]
Anchor I stared at the reflection of myself in what looked like a mirror, but really it was just a cloudy acrylic fiberglass, also known as, a ‘glassless mirror, the blue scrubs that I now wore were made of a thin cotton and the pants were so long that they were dragging on the floor. [...]
My Experiences with Anxiety By: Jesse Beringer Looking at other people’s submissions on this site, I couldn’t help but feel that my story wasn’t worthy enough in comparison to theirs. I read two different submissions about diagnosed bipolar disorder, as well as depersonalization disorder, and thought, “Man I had it easy compared to them. My story [...]
Due to my multiple chronic illnesses, I recently had to have a mediport placed. For those of you who aren't sure what that is, it's an access placed in your chest that goes directly to your heart to allow the patient to not have to have their veins get damaged from frequent treatments or blood [...]
I had few "constants" in my early life. We moved often and had no financial stability. Mental and emotional abuse by my stepfather made each day hard to predict. Physical and sexual abuse by my stepbrother, however, was consistent. Because we moved so often, and I had to say goodbye to so many, I learned [...]
Multitude of Sins What kind of monster screams at her children like that? Red-faced, chest heaving, spitting as I snarl. Hell would be seeing myself through their eyes. I’m teaching them to be like me, even though I desperately want them to be different. How are they supposed to be different when I am their [...]
Trigger warning - sexual abuse We were all girls once The men who assaulted me had assaulted other girls before me. They assaulted other girls after me. We’re part of the same rusted chain, those girls and I, the chain that tethers us together the same chain that tethers us to the gate on the [...]
Anxiety Bees In my head there lives a little bee with anxiety. Sometimes he nicely walks around wiping down counters but most of the time he is buzzing and fussing and fighting and making a big old mess. I’m not sure when he moved in. I didn’t exactly invite him or any of his friends [...]
Stigma Fighters - Michelle Joni CATHARSIS AND UNICORNS “The Queen of Play is Depressed!” This was my first subject line to the doctor who would soon become my first adult [...]
