I am a Tightrope Walker. To define Tightrope walking the dictionary tells me it is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope. Today I realized that I am exactly that. I balance on a very fine tightrope. I am a tightrope walker, in every sense of the word – except the true [...]
I was first asked to write for Stigma Fighters a few months ago, and to be quite honest with you I found the thought at the time, daunting. I reviewed the website and saw quite a eclectic mix of stories from individuals and mental health professionals. I honestly thought how could my story and writing [...]
When I was a little girl I was constantly alone. My real dad, who I have learned is most like me, left when I was two years old. My mom married when I was 4 to a man that I still don't get along with, which I think says something about how my childhood went. [...]
I don’t see myself as a person with a mental disorder. I don’t buy into thrown-around labels and insults. Deep within my core, I believe we all have differences: Maybe your trauma was a car accident that threw your Civic off the highway, and every time you drive that stretch your knees buckle, reminding you [...]
When my son was first—and finally—diagnosed with Asperger's, my reaction was total and complete validation. I know...it sounds awful. My reaction was all about me. As a mother. A caregiver. A disciplinarian. I think it's like this for a lot of parents...the reaction we have to our children's diagnoses has, at least immediately, more to [...]
Which Mind Will Show? Which mind minds what I bring for show and tell? The one that’s always late or the stickler for the bell? Which mind's telling, who is here for show? Visual flamboyance, or my verbal plateau? Who’s pulling strings when clutter is my camp? Who’s pouring ink for pessimists stamp? Is it [...]
Baby Steps I have a full time job. I work forty plus hours a week. Four ten hour shifts on any combination of days, but at least two off in a row. I have benefits. I work with some good people. I work doing a good thing that helps people. But the two days I [...]
Until the stigma has been removed from mental illness, I do not want help with my mental sufferings. This may be wrong, propagating stigma, or symptom of paranoia, but in my mind it is honesty about reality. It was a choice I made over twenty years ago, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon. [...]
Am I Normal? I spent many years working in public mental health with people who have serious, chronic mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia. Over and over they would say to me “well you’re normal, you don’t get it”. I started to question, what exactly is normal and how [...]
There is no single origin story for mental illness. There are genes and what passes through them; there are early onset signs that may be treated if they weren’t missed or ignored; there are traumas that bring forth something in the brain’s chemistry that wouldn’t have reared its ugly head otherwise; but there is not [...]
