“Even though Barbra didn’t share details of her illness with me, I always vaguely intuited something was going on. But I avoided directly engaging with her about her struggles because it was just easier to ignore something I didn’t understand. I wanted to maintain the status quo of our light-hearted friendship.” You may not always…
“I think if we were to have a really honest and open conversation with almost anyone in our own family or social circle — whatever class of society we belong to — we would soon realise that practically everyone we know has a personal account of being sexually abused as a child. Are some of…
I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the headlines about a recent study that seemed to show a tie between the amount of time spent on social media and depression. Unfortunately, almost all of those stories came with blaring headlines proclaiming that the study had shown that using social networks led to depression, and then…
Just because I’m depressed doesn’t mean I’m suddenly not an adult. In layman’s terms, I want to make it clear: Depression does not equal regression to childhood. I say this because, almost without exception, people will talk to me like I’m a 4-year-old once they discover I’m suffering from depression. I wish this illness was…
This is also an important consideration for survivors of child abuse. Though this article is not specific to us, I find many of the things mentioned true. As an adult I still struggle to work with people who remind me of an abuser, whether it’s their appearance or an occasional action that brings back the…
When it comes to those mental illness-fueled thoughts about not deserving to take care of ourselves, those are also not true. The thing about mental illnesses is that they like to keep us sick because it lets them stick around. That sick part of our brain, I feel, is fighting to stay alive just as…
