There's been a lot of talk recently about the stigma of mental illness. There's only one way to erase a stigma, and that's by shining a light on individual stories. This is mine ... I have Bipolar Disorder. I first showed signs of the disease in my teens, but wasn't diagnosed until last year. Don't [...]
My Survival Story In the midst of one the worst depressive episodes I had ever endured I made the decision to end my life. I was meticulous in the details and in the execution of my plan. Depression told me that I was worthless, a failure in all aspects of my life. Repeating poor choice [...]
My story is like any other book in an enormous library. Kept for records, collecting dust, sitting in an isolated nook in a forgotten corner. I'm not trying to downplay my struggles. I know that every story has its purpose. It's measure of influence on lives and society. But I also don't want to come [...]
I have struggled with depression for many years. Growing up, I was always bullied and abused by people in and out of my family. I had low self esteem and always thought the worst. I had really bad anxiety, depression, etc. Freshman year, I moved to South Carolina where I thought things would get better. [...]
THE SURVIVOR EXCERPT #1 One day you see it from the outside. It breaks you and everyone else it touches. Broken is the only word to describe it, because the people are never the same people again. Their lives have been forever altered and they can never go back to who they once were. Life [...]
When you're a teenager one of the last places you expect to end up is on the psychiatric unit of a hospital. Yet that's where I found myself one day when I was 15. My Mother and I had gotten to the emergency department at the city hospital pretty late at night from what I [...]
“How did I get here?” It’s a question I used to obsess over, feeling distraught over what I felt were the world’s standards for my age versus what I had actually accomplished at that point in time. I grieved how much I felt was stolen from me because of my mental illness and wondered if [...]
Getting Through an Episode The curtain opens. I am Jonathan. I have schizophrenia. I don’t want to make a big introduction. Perhaps some of you have read my work before. For me, schizophrenia is similar to what I have read. In the early material, from such turn-of-the-century psychiatrists as Kraepelin and Bleuler, there seems to [...]
8 Ways To Help A Loved One With Depression 1- Allow Your Presence To Be Present Show up and just be there - Not to make the situation better. But, to show your loved one that he or she is not alone. Your presence and you being present with them is powerful. Sitting in the [...]
“I Wanted To Kill Myself” My brain injury changed me and took away my hope, my smile, my laughter, and the life I knew The heaviness of that burden made me want to GO The life I knew had changed so much that a darkness came over me that I could not shake All I [...]
