When I was twelve, my parents and I moved to Orcas Island. They had heard about a new, small Christian school in a secluded island town and wanted me to attend. Just like that, I was in a strange new place where I knew nobody but my parents. Still, somehow, I was hopeful and excited [...]
As I look back on my life, my battle with mental health started young. My father was killed when I was six years old, triggering the life-long battle I would be fighting with others and myself. Throughout grade school, my teachers deemed me a “mature child,” probably because my childhood was ripped away from me [...]
Have you ever tried to describe air to a toddler? “You can’t sense it with sight, touch, smell, hear or taste but I guarantee you it’s there!” I get the same look when I share with people my mental health diagnoses. You can watch the gears in people’s minds slowly turning, eyes twitching and feverishly [...]
I grew up in an unpredictable and turbulent alcoholic home, where anger, violence and fear were common denominators to everyday life. Initially my wealthy father funded an affluent lifestyle and we lived in a large house and I was shipped off to boarding school for my formative years. When my mother got sober and began [...]
Depression and Alcoholism Part 1 Well, I guess it's time to start this essay on my own battles with alcoholism and depression. I'm no writer and there is probably a shitload of grammar errors here. I was gonna have it edited, but I want this to be mine. A couple of rules here. 1. I'm [...]
Being diagnosed with a mental illness is like finding out you have spent your whole life breathing through a straw. It's like walking on stage preparing to sing and being handed a pair of tap shoes. It is what I believe the Americans would call, 'a curve ball'. I am a logical person, I like [...]
Stomp Out Stigma (stompoutstigmablog.com) is my brainchild and with lots of work it’s become a tangible reality. I am a vivacious yet distressed 26-year-old woman fighting bipolar disorder with all my strength in Vancouver, British Columbia. My blog chronicles my real life perils using brutal honesty, wit and strength. Stomp Out Stigma took on [...]
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 18 years old, a time when most people’s concerns are sitting next to someone hot during freshman seminar or whether your parents are going to pick up your dirty laundry when they visit for the weekend. Two months into college and my concerns became bipolar disorder, what it [...]
Nine months after my third son was born, I was faced with a choice: end my life to end my suffering, or admit myself to a hospital and fight like hell to get my sanity back. I nearly made the wrong choice and left my three boys motherless. I knew my marriage was basically over, [...]
According to the internet, my friends, and mental health groups all over the world, I am a stigma fighter. I’m an elite, mentally ill stigma fighter looking to change the perception of mental illness in a single bound. I, of course, am not an elite anything, but I am a person with knowledge, lived experience, [...]