Depression has made me want to shrink myself, hide away, avoid all of the phone calls, emails, and text messages. Depression has robbed my creativity, my motivation, my confidence and strength. But I can’t hide. The stigma surrounding mental illness is begging me to be brave. Stigma harms the 1 in 5 Americans affected byContinue reading “Let’s End the Stigma”
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In working toward finding mental health stability while simultaneously facing the highs and unrelenting lows of life, the creativity and motivation to write can be hard to access. I find great joy in writing, yet the apathy of mild depression stagnates my motivation to seek out joyful activities, as binge watching TV on the couchContinue reading “Back to the Roots: Mental Illness Superpowers”
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Chronic mental illness feels like fighting in a lifelong battle you can never win. The exhaustion of getting knocked down, and knowing only you can get yourself back up again, and again, and again, feels like too much sometimes. Depression lies to us time and time again. Depression tells us that we should keep ourContinue reading “I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again”
Do you remember all those nights you spent crying, but you weren’t really sure why? Do you remember those days you couldn’t make it to class or to work, but you really didn’t know why? What about the doubts you had about if you could even bear to continue living—the thoughts you were ashamed toContinue reading “A Letter to My Younger Self”
I woke up this morning with a heart full of gratitude. Last week in my dialectic behavior therapy (DBT) group, I shared that I was feeling more and more confident with coping with crises and significant mood swings, but am really struggling with managing the “daily grind.” I come home from work and I amContinue reading “A Heart Full of Gratitude”
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Lotuses grow from the mud and bloom into beautiful flowers. The mud has been plentiful this year. We are living through a global pandemic that has killed millions of people around the world. It has changed the way we live our daily lives. People who are at risk live in fear. Even those of usContinue reading “No Mud, No Lotus”
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I just had a miscarriage. It still feels like I’m talking about someone else’s life when I say it. I’ll never be able to erase the memory of walking to the bathroom in the middle of my work day, just like any other day, then looking down and seeing blood. I proceed to take allContinue reading “Building Resilience One Day at a Time”
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With the uncertainty of when the COVID-19 crisis in our country will resolve, making plans is difficult. My husband, friends, and I have canceled an international trip twice, for which we spent months planning—something I’m sure many can relate to. The evenings and weekends are blank squares on the calendar, except for an occasional hikeContinue reading “Shifting a Depressed Brain Toward Gratitude”
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It’s exhausting to care so deeply for others, to give so much of yourself day in and day out, and to constantly put yourself into the shoes of the suffering so that you can truly empathize with their experience. This is what I do as an occupational therapist. I work with children and their familiesContinue reading “Mental Illness in the Workplace”
As my physical anxiety symptoms make their unwelcome return, I have been reflecting on the last few weeks. What were the triggers? Why is anxiety increasing instead of improving? Well I think there is one obvious trigger—the stress and uncertainty of the election. Add to that continued worry and difficulty with my fertility journey, andContinue reading “Willfulness: Personal Enemy Number One”
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Mental Illness is My Superpower