Hi, my name is Adrian Fletcher. I am a psychologist, trauma therapist, consultant, speaker, and writer. I live with both Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder. In 2017 after an attempt at my own life I spent time in a psychiatric hospital and residential treatment facility. [...]
Everyone experiences failure at some point in life, and everyone handles it differently. In the past, I have not dealt with my failure in a productive way. I have responded with anger, frustration, and giving up. When I find things hard I lose motivation and think I am not good enough or that I'm incapable [...]
Hello, My story is not unique, unfortunately. So many young boys are brutalized by family members and go on to live in chasms of despair, confusion and self-hate unnecessarily. Silence is a killer. Victims must feel free to speak up without fear of reprisal or subjugation. My abuse was at the hands of my father [...]
After withdrawing from the college of my choice in a state of depression, I returned home and experienced depersonalization. It felt like I was in a Snoopy cartoon where the adults were talking but it sounded like nonsense. In other words, my body felt disconnected from the my mind, my brain and my emotions. I [...]
Trigger Warning *Suicide* In 2012 I put a gun to my chest and pulled the trigger. That was when I realized that I had a problem. For years I’ve suffered with severe depression, bipolar disorder, and drug/alcohol addiction. As a queer non-binary man living in the South I had always had issues with self [...]
TW: Abuse, Eating Disorder, Suicidal Thoughts I am 18 years old, but I feel as though I am just finally figuring out my place in this world and my identity. All my life I have lived with social and generalized anxiety disorders, as well as depression. It was not until I reached high school when [...]
In the spring of 2015, after a stay in a psychiatric ward, I was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. For a long time, I struggled to accept my illness. I was ashamed of it. The very idea of talking about it to anyone was embarrassing to me as if having a mental illness made me [...]
Recovery is Non-Linear Recovery is non-linear. Anyone who says that getting better is a straight line - I want their secret. I want to be stable, but what does that mean? It means sometimes being unstable, wobbly, broken in particular ways. We shatter and come together. We hurt and we heal. We scream, cry or [...]
Safety from Stigma Learning how recovery, addiction, and mental illness are so intertwined has been eye-opening in my three years of sobriety. Being able to see how my depression opened the door to the depths of addiction in my life now makes perfect sense. The stigma that comes with both addiction and mental illness is [...]
