When I was a child my mother’s drug addiction was a prominent force in her life and that also meant that it was a big part of mine. It became one of the major causes of our unending, toxic, family dysfunction, but her crack-cocaine addiction and polysubstance dependence couldn’t hold a candle to her mismanaged [...]
One of the challenges that I have in my life is knowing when to give people space to process their own feelings. I want to be involved in helping my friends and loved ones. My inclination is to provide them with helpful solutions so that they can better more through their pain. I am a person [...]
When you have a mental illness (or mental health issues) they are bound to impact your interpersonal relationships. As people living with mental illness, we experience a wide array of symptoms depending on our diagnosis. From the highs of mania to the hallucinations of schizophrenia - your partner is bound to be impacted by these [...]
I’ve been a lot of things and had a lot of roles in my life. Model, farmer, business owner, author, blogger, wife, mom, Christian. I’ve been a Vacation Bible School leader and Children’s’ Ministry leader. I’ve sat in the pew every Sunday for years, prayed, read my bible, attended bible studies, and worshiped the Lord [...]
I'm living on a tropical island, surrounded by beautiful people, and I'm constantly treated like a VIP. That's all true, but it's not the whole story. I'm also a 39-year-old alcoholic who abandoned his wife, 8 kids, church job, and everything else that once mattered to me. My rental is 1,700 miles away from my [...]
Allow me to tell you something that I have dealt with and continue to manage, but certainly, does not define who I am as a person at all. I was diagnosed with a mental difference called schizophrenia. About two and a half years ago something happened to me; when a history of experienced trauma in [...]
What the Negative Thought Bubbles Are Telling Me by Sarah Schuster I call them “negative thought bubbles” because those are the only words I can access at the time. Lying in my high school boyfriend’s bed, I explain to him matter-of-factly he has to let me be until all the bubbles pop. *Pop* You’re a [...]
Bipolar: A Pharmacist's View When I got my first job at a retail pharmacy after graduation, I had no idea what to expect. Sure I had worked at the neighborhood pharmacy all through high school and part of college, but we were still filling prescriptions old school with a typewriter. We knew each customer by [...]
Mental illness is not easy. You cannot simply tell a depressed person to be positive and get over it. You cannot tell someone suffering from anxiety to just stay calm. You cannot reassure a person battling anorexia that if they just eat something it will go away. Mental illness is hard. It’s complicated, exhausting and [...]
Good days Some days, I am allowed to like the things I like. I have the glorious freedom to approach life in an unconventional way and to be someone that I have never seen in other people. Some days it's like I have the permission to celebrate and embrace and relish in the differences between [...]
