Changing Our Tune Why We Need a Choir of Advocates to Fix Mental Health By Liza Long In the spring of 2003, I sank into a deep depression. I was near the end of my third pregnancy’s second trimester, expecting another boy to join my lively five and three year old sons. The psychiatrist who [...]
The Inheritance of Domestic Violence Sometimes, when it’s quiet and I’m alone, I can still hear my mother’s and stepfather’s raging, violent arguments echoing through my head. I see her face; bruised, swollen and bloodied. I feel once again like I’m cowering in the hallway, waiting for a chance to reach the telephone hanging on [...]
I’ve been promising for too long to submit my story to help stop the stigma against mental illness. The reason it has taken me to so long to finally do so is not because I lack passion for the cause. In fact, the opposite is true. Honestly, I have started writing my story for the [...]
Looking back over my nearly 30 years, I’ve struggled with low self esteem and low mood for most of my life. I was bullied as a child, and I think that shaped my future. It made me feel terrible about myself, and I don’t think that deep down, I’ve ever really recovered from it. I [...]
I immediately felt like my life should end. I was 25 years old, and my husband left. He left me with two sons to raise alone. I was left to struggle. What I thought would be forever was over. What my culture, religion and family told me I should fight for was over in a [...]
It’s Not That I Don’t Love You…My Struggle with Attachment Disorder From age three to eleven I was sexually abused. Repeatedly. Horrifically. My abuser was a man who should have been a safe, loving person in my life. He was someone I should have counted on to protect me, rather than a man I needed [...]
They always came at night. They fed on darkness and fear. The dimly lit corners of my bedroom served as their concealment, and allowed my imagination to create all sorts of sinister apparitions that left me sleepless night after night. I was 5 years old and plagued with anxiety. But at 5, my developing brain [...]
I started writing a piece that was chronologically setting out my story. But it was hard to write something coherent enough. Besides, this isn’t supposed to be my life history. So we’ll stick to just a few bits and pieces. I was formally diagnosed with clinical depression in 2004. However in hindsight it probably started [...]
I was told one time that I am not depressed. Apparently, I am a good faker. I wonder if I should have insisted and explained. Instead I just let it go and said that I must be better, and wasn’t that cool. Idiot. It’s so hard to remain up all the time. I try to [...]
The Melting Point Of The Sky Imagine being so mentally and physically exhausted that the idea of making a cup of instant coffee in the microwave feels an insurmountable task. That’s where I’ve been the past several weeks. My brain has been like an engine trying to run without oil— and we all know what [...]