The faces of mental illness put forward by the world never match mine. They’re nearly always white rather than brown, as I am; they’re generally wild eyed or in the context of violence or out of control. That’s not how the people in my life describe me, and even those closest to me often miss [...]
The day I disclosed the abuse to my supervisor at work, it had already manifested as a critical issue that needed to be addressed. She and I were alone in that office as I sat in silence staring at the floor, too ashamed and too frightened to force the words from my mouth. He was [...]
In June 2005, I was returning to the United States from my first deployment. As soon as my unit landed, there was a lot of fanfare from the public. I truly felt like a “hero” because our unit helped facilitate the first election in Iraq. My job as an electronic technician, was to maintain communication [...]
DON’T BELIEVE MY SMILE: A COLLAGE I.“You’re not depressed,” my depressed friend said to me, laughing. Our hostess swept by with a tray of hors d’oeuvres and another friend, glass in hand, joined our circle. My friend was so sure about my mood, citing reasons like my extroversion, my smile. It wasn’t easy to insist, [...]
When I was three years old, my parents divorced. My mother, suffering from bipolar disorder and not knowing how she could raise a child on her own, attempted suicide. I have vivid memories of her return from the hospital: she was so sedated that she could not pick me up. With the dissolution of my [...]
I've never been one to embrace limits, but in the past few years I've learned that doing so is a matter of maintaining emotional stability. Recently, I was asked to accompany my best friend to his sister's. I hesitated because I'd been subjected to three incidents of hair-pulling in a 48-hour period by his teen-aged [...]
I was taken advantage of -over and over again- at points in my life that I needed to be supported and protected. Started with age three until eight, I'm raped and molested. Funny thing, PTSD. It does a great job at hiding the screams of the innocent child, stuffed inside the adult. I grew up, but screaming [...]
Some Dreams Just Don't Come True... We learn at a young age to follow our dreams, that all our dreams will come true... our parents encourage us, our teachers encourage us, our friends encourage us. There are so many inspiring quotes out there about it "never being too late for your dreams to come true." [...]
Accepting Reality I could never say my childhood was completely unhappy. I was actually very fortunate. Still, there loomed a dark cloud over my youth that would grow stormier throughout different points of my life. My parents divorced when I was in my early teens. Over the course of my youth I lived in absolute [...]
I'm part of the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. By 2050, Latinos will account for 25% of the U.S. population. These rising numbers keep most politicians scratching their heads on how to handle immigration issues wishing there was an easy way out for them of course. In my opinion, they only help [...]
