A Mental Health Autobiography I'm never certain how much of my own experiences are unique to me, and how much of my experiences are universal, shared by everyone: a part of the human condition. Sometimes I think that our feelings are all more or less the same. Sometimes I think it's just me. Sometimes I [...]
I believe that, at birth, the bond between us and our parents is the strongest that it'll ever be. It's one of the only raw and unadulterated moments in our lifetime. Where uncertainty doesn't exist: there are no filters switched on that day. Words aren't needed - our eyes tell it all. A gentle smile [...]
For a bizarre fucking reason growing up, I was taught to bottle my feelings so that I could reserve my place in 'real-man' heaven. I always believed that crying was an expression of inner weakness which I needed to contain so I could keep up the appearance of this red-meat eating, lumberjack who was impervious [...]
As advocates for mental health and help seeking, we often discover that a great chasm separating us from help is gouged open by fear and shame. Treatments have become more effective, and more people in our community voice their support, yet it seems that too many people who need help slip through the cracks and [...]
I can recall the very moment everything changed. I remember it clearly as if a wire in my brain became unplugged. I was at a friend’s house and I sat down on the edge of the fireplace to settle in for another movie. Except this time was different. Though my body physically stopped moving when [...]
Mental illness has always been familiar to me. My mom has lived with depression and anxiety for the majority of her life. There were days she wouldn’t get out of bed, but would remain curled up with her tattered red robe, with a pillow over her head. My sister and I learned to play quietly [...]
The rock. The warm hug. The one you call. The one who would listen. The one who didn’t judge. That was me. I wasn’t a person with mental illness. I was a person who had friends with mental illness. Amazing, one of a kind, incredible, motivating, strong friends that I loved and admired very much. [...]
I am staring at the scissors in my hands and I am shaking. I am twelve and I don’t know that I can simply take the screen out of the window. I assume that I have to cut it away. I assume that even ending my pain will be difficult. I assume that I cannot [...]
What's it Like to Feel Crazy? The other day at work, I couldn’t take any more. I grabbed my water bottle and keys and followed the road near my office complex until it led me to the highway. For 45 minutes, I drove. Where I went didn't matter. The trees blurred past my car windows [...]
Wrestling for Control of My Mental Health Mental illness is a unique issue in that everybody has an opinion about what it is, how to treat it, the use/efficacy of medication, etc. Often, the person suffering doesn’t have a voice. In the past, I worked as a caretaker and nursing assistant for patients with physical [...]
