I am going to write about me, but I have to start earlier. Mental illness has a genetic component and mood and thought disorders tend to run in my family. When I was 15, my 21 year old brother was away at college. He had a psychotic break, but we didn’t know what had happened. [...]
Land of the (not so stigma) Free I am livid. I am so frustrated and hurt that I am physically shaking. As someone who almost lost their life to a treatable condition because of negative stereotypes, misinformation, and stigmatizing jokes, I will not laugh when a presidential candidate insults their opponents by implying they are [...]
Hello. I have wrote for Stigma Fighters previously about my Trich once before. You may or may not know what it is depending on if you've heard about it or have it yourself or perhaps know someone who has it. A month after I submitted my essay to Stigma Fighters I wrote another essay or [...]
When you have a mental illness, it’s customary to look back on your life and try to decipher when it all started. I’ll start with this: I’ve always felt different. That might sound cliché, but it’s true. As a teenager, I was quiet. I spent a lot of time locked in my room reading books. [...]
Sickness, Stress and Self-doubt… And Then There’s Me…. By Berni OK, I was a miserable child, from what I remember. I was the only kid with glasses. I moved about because dad's work moved about. So I joined my junior school mid-year. Don’t ask me at what age. Anyway I was bullied at junior school [...]
Psychotic episodes from 19-33 years old. All I could do was hang on for the ride. From spending a vast amount of money to going from job to job while still staying in my field. From having numerous sexual partners to having unsafe sex with them. To having my 20s a blur and my 30s a little [...]
When you are a child trying to understand the meaning life, you have no idea if you are getting it. All you know is when you are obedient and stay out of trouble, your parents will not spank you. My life was very simple. I was born into a family consisting of three brothers and [...]
*Trigger warning - suicide. In four days it will be a year since I lost my only brother to suicide. The past year has been the most excruciatingly painful of all my 23 years. I was naïve to think I had ever known pain before April 8th of 2015. The days, weeks, and months that [...]
The Numbness in my Blood. It started fourteen years ago, and now I am a different person. For a long while, nobody could figure it out. My toddler son would have spells where he struggled to breathe, and sometimes turned a ghastly shade as he fought for air. Croup, they said at first. But the [...]
EMDR, PPD & Self Compassion... Every Monday I have my therapy appointment. This is for my new therapy that I started a few months ago, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). If I tried to explain the exact technique, I think I would confuse you further. What I can say, is that it is hard. [...]
