Anxiety
Articles that cover anxiety and the many forms in which it comes
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Depression: silently coming apart at the seams
Trigger Warning: Mention of self-harm and suicidal ideation In high school, I reinvented myself. In junior high I hid my extreme shyness and inner turmoil behind an obsession with horses. But as I transitioned from junior high to high school, I decided that I didn’t want to be “that weird girl” anymore. I had been involved in theater since I was 12 and simply utilized what I had learned. I wasn’t confident, but I could fake it. I’ve always been timid, but I had wanted to be a leader. And I wasn’t happy, but I could pretend I was. The result was a new identity – a fearless leader, alternative…
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My Experience with Mental Illness in the Workplace
In college, I interviewed for a position in the lab of a professor at my university. I eagerly explained that part of why I was interested in his work and the role was because of my personal experience with schizoaffective disorder. He gently advised me that my diagnosis was something I should keep closer to my chest in job interviews. At the time, I was almost offended. I’m out here trying to break stigma. How can I do that if I’m not open about it? But, over the years, I’ve come to understand why he said that. At this point in my life, I’ve been through several jobs in some…
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Tangled Emotions
Mental illness is cruel. It can take your ability to reason right out of your grasp. It can reach into your head and twist your thoughts until they’re so tangled up you don’t know what’s happening. Mental illness can steal your hope, push every button you have, and fill your head with so many different emotions that you don’t know what you’re feeling. I thought I was keeping up with my thoughts and feelings, but mental illness fed me anxiety, fear, and paranoia until I didn’t know what I was feeling anymore. It started with my ex moving into my building and my post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) soaring to new…
- Anxiety, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PTSD, Recovery, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia
What do I want when I need support?
What do I want when I’m not okay? How can you help me when I’m coming unraveled on the floor? What are you expected to do when my nerves are on fire and I can’t handle it? What are you supposed to say when I’m telling you I’m seeing something that you can’t see? How are you supposed to know what to do? Well, you aren’t. I spent years wanting someone to just know what I wanted and how to help me without me having to explain. But over the years I realized that I couldn’t expect others to know. Why would you know? Why would you know how to…
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The Importance of Hope in Recovery
Receiving a mental health diagnosis isn’t the end of your life, it’s just the beginning of a new chapter. But it may be daunting or terrifying. When I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, I had no idea what my future would look like. Would I go to college? Would I have a career? Or would I live out my days in my parents’ home or a residential facility, unable to care for myself? I honestly didn’t know, and I’m not sure anyone else did either. While my mind went spinning into denial, fear, and acceptance that life as I knew it was over, a part of me clung to hope…
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When All You Can Do Is Try
Receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder is life changing. It can turn your entire world upside down. I would love to tell you that I’ve always handled my diagnosis and living with schizoaffective disorder with dignity and grace, but that’s just not the case. Despite my ability to articulate what I’ve been through, I don’t have myself entirely together all the time. I would like to believe that I do, but I don’t. I’ve been bitter, I’ve been angry, and I’ve been in denial. It’s feelings not unlike that which some people with diagnoses of other chronic illnesses or terminal illnesses go through. I used to try to…
- Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Medication, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PTSD, Recovery, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia
Preparedness for people with mental illnesses
It can be hard to feel prepared for anything when you’ve got a mental health disorder. Below is a list of things that I’ve done to prepare myself for events ranging from forgetting the details of my medications to the possibility of being unable to make decisions for myself. Keep a list of medications with important personal information I take many medications for both mental and physical issues daily, but it was hard to keep track of them. To make that easier, I started carrying a list with me in my wallet. This way, when doctors asked about my medication, I could just give them the list. It turned out…
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On opening up about a diagnosis
Opening up is easier said than done There’s so much fear involved in opening up about a diagnosis or symptoms. It’s incredibly common for people to feel like their loved ones will abandon them or think poorly of them if they speak up about what’s happening. Fear is often joined by denial, and these feelings can be so strong that many people remain silent even as their conditions deteriorate to critical levels. My struggle with speaking up I have a very supportive family who always made it clear that I could tell them anything, but I struggled to tell them about the depression I’d been experiencing since I was a…
- Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PTSD, Recovery, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia
What does recovery mean?
What does recovery mean in terms of mental health? And what does it mean to be recovered from a mental illness? Are there still meds involved? Are you free and clear? Will it last forever? Throughout my time in mental health advocacy, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about recovery, and, while I do feel like the way the term “full recovery” is used is sometimes misleading, what I’ve learned is that recovery is very personal in both the process and the meaning. I hadn’t really thought about it before When I attended training at the Chicago chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to be a Crisis…
- Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PTSD, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia
Mental illness isn’t one size fits all
Any time you interact with someone with a mental health condition, there’s one very important thing to remember – as the stereotypes you know from movies and media start creeping into your view of them, remember that everyone is different and mental illness isn’t one size fits all. You know how some people are tall and some people are short? Or how some people have blonde hair and others have brown? Guess what – mental illness is the same way! Sure, some people have those stereotypical symptoms, but a lot of people don’t, and that doesn’t mean they aren’t truly experiencing it or don’t fall under the same class of…