To Be Both Client and Clinician By Vincent J. Fitzgerald I sit in serene, soft light and contemplate what is safe to share, and what I should withhold. My war against anxiety is fought on many fronts, and I am battle weary from its barrage of multiple manifestations. Across from me a person waits for [...]
As a male living with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Bipolar Disorder, it often takes us years to figure out what is wrong with us, and sometimes we create a lot of destruction in the wake of even finding out that something is wrong. It’s hard to remember exactly when my story began, but I can [...]
Being Good At Living With Mental Illness Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Have It “How do you just talk to people so easily?” she asked me. “I’d be so anxious.” “That’s my secret,” I replied, pulling out my best Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers voice. “I’m always anxious.” I’m often told, especially by people in mental [...]
Part Of Me “Normal is illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” –Morticia Addams My life as a liar began when I was very young. I was an awful child. I made everyone in my life angry, constantly. I did very bad and horrible things every day. I was too [...]
Trigger warning - suicide I think we can all agree life isn't worth living. The question is: are you too lazy to do anything about it? Most people are. Usually I am too. One day I wasn't, so I sliced open my wrists and downed a bottle of Klonopin and waited to fall asleep and [...]
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 [...]
I was working as a paramedic in Long Island and preparing to go to medical school. My father has a condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse, which resulted in him having a surgical procedure. Because the condition is hereditary, I opted to have a voluntary surgical procedure on my heart to preserve my overall health. 95 [...]
