This summer I turn 29. I have suffered from generalized anxiety presumably my entire life. The panic attacks started in high school as did the bipolar mood swings. I was chronically suicidal but even more so, I was stubborn. Until senior year of high school, I did just enough to skate under the radar. I [...]
I’ve lived with an anxiety disorder my whole life. The first time I panicked I was around five or six years old. I don’t really remember much besides the fact that I was with my parents in a crowded place during a concert, and that I felt a need to escape all the commotion into [...]
I thought I’d won. I thought I’d bested my anxiety. With the help of a little itty bitty capsule of Effexor and some strong willed thinking, I thought I’d put anxiety in its place once and for all. Not one to gloat, but I hadn’t had a full blown writhe-in-the-middle-of-the-living-room-at-2am attack in like 3 years. [...]
If I look back at all the times my anxiety has taken over my life, it’s hard to fathom. It started back when I was a kid. I often didn’t want to go to school and developed a stomach ache. It went undiagnosed for years. At age 19, I finally sought treatment, and now at [...]
When someone says they “literally had an anxiety attack” when something stressful happens, try thinking about this next time. An anxiety attack is two words I would love to never say again, never have again, and it hurts when you hear someone use a term that is utterly devastating to you as a joking phrase. [...]
I've fought my battles with mental health for years. I never really stepped back to take a look at what was going on because I never thought about having a mental health disorder, no matter how I felt, because it wasn't something that people spoke about openly. I knew the symptoms for a flu, I [...]
For the past 25 years I was oblivious to the fact that what I have been living with is considered a mental health condition, instead I went about my days thinking the others around me were strong and confident individuals whereas I believed I was just not. As I grew up I came to learn [...]
My daughter saved my life when I was 15. The thread was cobalt blue, and after I finished, I admired my work. At only thirteen, my embroidery was sloppy, but pride still swirled in my gut. The pride stemmed from accomplishment and mastery. Not a mastery of sewing skills, but as I stitched the letters [...]
Looking back, it’s hard to identify the exact moment when I realized that my thoughts and feelings weren’t normal. Didn’t everyone feel paralyzed with anxiety for no apparent reason or feel the vacant despair of depression for weeks at a time? Like all good journeys, my mental health journey started off with a bang. My [...]
More than anything, I want to help other people around me. Ever since I was young, I’ve always helped others before helping myself. I was under the impression from a young age that if you gave yourself self-love or self-care that you were selfish. This is unfortunately the conditioning that we receive at a very [...]
