Trigger Warning- Abuse Please Trust my Said Delusions Created by: Jessica Painter The television or the desert Where grenades were the stars You wished on night after night Overcome by fear of Iraqi shadows That danced on your sanity And made you afraid to turn off the lights - Daddy, this is not the usual [...]
Living with bipolar disorder and working in the healthcare system I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 14. It was uncommon for children this young to be diagnosed with this diagnosis. When I was at my absolute worse, I was unable to see myself accomplishing anything in the future. I couldn’t go [...]
Living with Asperger's is not an easy feat. It never is. imagine yourself in a room full of people. All of those people are laughing and mingling. Meanwhile, you aren’t. You’re sitting there in the corner all alone, watching everyone make nice with each other. Nobody doesn’t even acknowledge that you’re there. You just sit [...]
Our Mirrors and Their Cracks I was born with a mirror given to me. This wasn’t an ordinary mirror; in the sense that it never really reflected my actions as I moved in front of it. In my younger years, when I looked into this mirror, I always saw one still image. I’d always see [...]
What do you want to do with your life? That question has been hounding me for a long time. Since I was in high school, I was trying to find my purpose like so many others my age. We were asked that question since we were little kids and, given our lack of understanding of [...]
I’ve been denying it, hiding it, covering it up, but the pressure of pretenses has become too much. I’m never going to be “normal”, or my version of it. I get that ‘normal’ is not a real standard anymore. People are starting to own their differences and not allow themselves to be placed in a [...]
Although I have had an opportunity to rack up a fair share of successes, there was a time when I could barely leave my house as I struggled with the crippling symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which causes uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts and behaviors. This struggle occurred due to one major reason: there was little access [...]
My breakthrough Three years ago, I checked myself into the emergency psychiatric unit. In the three weeks leading up to that hospital visit, I went through cycles of agitation, moments of paranoia that the helicopters overhead were coming for me, and had several epiphanies. The notes I scribbled on my discoveries were simply gibberish. It [...]
March 2015 I trudged through the sand of Santa Monica Beach awaiting the celebration which was to ensue upon my arrival. The beach was filled with spectators as I went to the shore to set up shop. I laid out my beach towels and camouflaged workout gear. I scattered shells and crystals about with magic [...]
Trigger warning - sexual assault In one of my favorite movies, "Interstellar," two characters have a conversation about the nature of evil as they go out into space and the great unknown. "You don't think nature can be evil?" One character asks. "No," the other replies. "Formidable. Frightening. But... no, not evil. Is a lion [...]
