Terror. Escape. Shut-down. Repeat. I was abused, neglected, and traumatized when I was a kid. At-the-hands-of-a-sadist kind of thing. In the fallout I developed Complex PTSD, something that’s robbed me of most of my life. When Sarah Fader asked me to write an essay for Stigma Fighters I knew what would happen. Because I’d been through it so many [...]
We all have anxiety. It's our body's response to stressful situations. It's our body's way of telling us to be wary of situations that make us feel uncomfortable. It's our body's response to fight or flight. But what do you do when your body is constantly in that state? Hide? Run? But where to? You [...]
The Stigma of Depression “It’s all in your head”. Yes, unfortunately it is in my head. And my gastro-intestinal system. And muscles. And my checking account. And the hole that once resided a social life. Manic depression – specifically, and mental health issues in general – takes no prisoners and often solicits little understanding. We [...]
I'm sitting, curled up in a ball in the armchair in the living room. Tears are streaming down my face yet I feel scared. I can't control my thoughts. “How am I going to get through this weekend?” “I'm already in a state of high anxiety and depression because this current chronic pain flair won't [...]
Can You Make my Heart Sing? The psych units at the local hospital had become my second home. I‘ve been admitted so many times, I don’t remember just how many to give an accurate tally. If I had to guess I’d say a few less than 20. I knew I had a hard time coping [...]
No one is too far away to be cared for, or to care. by Marty Baker "I never know how Fran is doing, not really. She can seem so fragile, so close to the edge, so hurt and hurting ... and then the next moment we are laughing, or mad at each other. I’m learning [...]
The stigma that comes from having a mental illness, especially paranoid schizophrenia, is so intertwined in my life that it is hard to untangle my fears and my hurt from what society, and the people around me, are actually saying and doing. Please don’t get me wrong, although my fear and hurt have darkened my [...]
I was brought to Stigma Fighters by a friend that had written for the site, and I returned again and again reading many stories that resonated. But I asked myself, what stigma am I fighting and what have I fought? And I come up with ‘labels’. I’m that person who came from a ‘broken home’. [...]
Hello Stigma Fighters! TEEN LINE is a Los Angeles, California based teen-to-teen helpline affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Our trained teens answer calls, texts (US only), and emails from around the world 6p.m.-10p.m. Pacific Time. Adult volunteers from Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services answer the helpline number all other hours, providing suicide prevention support. Our [...]
On and off since the age of 10, I've been somewhere in the mental healthcare system. That's almost 18 years of treatment (mostly medication) and a whole host of diagnoses: major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and PTSD. Sometimes, it feels as though my life is made up of a series of waves [...]
