Leave it to me to be the dissenting voice. My mother wouldn’t at all be surprised. She might however be surprised to know that a few years ago I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. In fact most people in my life don’t know. Not because of stigma, not because of any sense of shame [...]
I suppose I have had anxiety my whole life. I was born into a strong Catholic family were everything was a sin. My older brother had epilepsy and so our family was always on edge, I guess I felt it was normal. It peaked at 13 when one night I was quietly watching tv like [...]
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) vs. Posttraumatic Growth (PTG): Focusing on Symptoms vs. Resiliency in Survivors of Trauma I’m no expert. I may be a counselor-in-training, completing my master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at CACREP-accredited Messiah College Graduate School, but I’m not the authority on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). Here’s [...]
Like many of you, I love chocolate, have a coffee addiction, and lie through my teeth when people ask me how I’m doing. Who wants to tell people, “I know I look fine, but this arthritis is really bugging me” or “my immune system is attacking my intestines and this leads to depression and an [...]
Facing Life - Heidi DiTonno I don't consider myself mentally ill, although my diagnoses would disagree with me. They are stigmas for my way of having to cope with situations that I somehow had to find a way to survive. And they worked for me, here I am! Burned and severely facially disfigured at 9 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
