“It was no bigger than a penny, but I wasn’t really concerned. Then a customer said, ‘What’s on your face?’ My boss asked if I was okay, and I put on a brave face and acted as if I wasn’t bothered. Neither of us could believe what had just happened.”
‘I thought people had to be pretty to work here.’ I acted like I wasn’t bothered, but I cried the whole night.’: Woman with psoriatic arthritis says she ‘isn’t defined’ by her condition
‘I wouldn’t care if I didn’t wake up,’ I texted my husband. I planned to ram my car into the cement pillars under the overpass.’: Woman battling depression reminds us to ‘take it one day at a time’
“My husband got a new job so we could see each other more. Things were going well until one day I randomly got extremely depressed. My husband left for work and I started thinking, ‘You’re fat. You’re ugly. No one loves you, and you aren’t going anywhere in life.’ I grabbed my keys, hugged my cat, got in my car, and started driving down the highway. This was it. This was the day I was going to commit suicide.”
‘I love when you are healthy, and can play with me,’ my son said. That CRUSHED me. I was forced to observe my son from a distance, watching his life from afar. I couldn’t join in.’
“When my husband and I decided to have a second child, crap hit the fan. I felt like a failure, yet nothing was ‘officially’ wrong with me. I would overdo it just to show him I was a good mom. I would regret it later.”
‘When you look at me, I know what you see. Your face says it all clearly: ‘You’re so fun! So crazy. So put together!’ What don’t you see? I am on the highest dose of Prozac a woman can take.’
“I’ve got all the ‘required’ pics. Smiley, happy, spouse selfie? Check. Happy, well-behaved kids? Got ’em. But I am tired of living in secrecy and shame. I am done hiding from my truth.”
‘I was pregnant. I was only 21. I started bleeding. ‘Maybe it’s for the best,’ one family member said. This was supposed to be the happiest time of my life. Instead, it was a nightmare.’
“Josh came home. He suggested we go for a walk, but when I told him to just take our daughter. He couldn’t understand why – and that’s when I lost it. I was screaming at everyone, ‘WHY AM I HERE? I DON’T UNDERSTAND. WHAT IS THE POINT.’”
‘He said he ‘knew what I had done.’ My clothes were all thrown on the floor. My boyfriend was kicking me out.’: Woman escapes abusive ex with bi-polar disorder
“I asked her what was wrong. She told me she didn’t know how to tell me, but I should probably get home as soon as I could. My boyfriend had called her to let her know he was throwing out all my stuff and kicking me out. ‘Why?!,’ I asked her crying. My boyfriend yelled at me, saying I needed to get my (explicit) out of there now.”
‘My husband left. My son was homeless. My daughter swallowed 160 pills, and my baby would likely be stillborn.’: Woman’s life ‘dismantled from top to bottom,’ survives ‘massive ball of horror’
“The next morning, I awoke in our empty bed and reality came crashing down around me. I completely shattered. It had been almost a year since I walked out on our back deck and breathed in the gorgeous fragrance of the fruit trees in full bloom, felt the warm sun on my skin, and took a big, deep breath as my heart swelled with gratitude. Now, my life felt unsurvivable.”
‘I had never been aware of the world of anti-depressants. How can you be THAT sad? I didn’t get it. Then my 2-year-old was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma.’
“It was then that I understood depression. I was completely overwhelmed. I was getting frustrated with my daughter who couldn’t help or control anything she was doing or what was happening to her. I felt crazy.”
‘8 months before this picture was taken, at the recommendation of my gynecologist, I went off Zoloft for the first time in a decade.’
“‘It’s better if you just get off of it,’ he said to me, without ever asking if I thought that would be the right choice for my personal situation. Wanting to start off on the right foot as a mother, I was obedient and followed his instructions without question. What I didn’t know, however, was there were other options.”
‘It doesn’t mean I’m broken. It means I’m strong enough to ask for help.’
“So here’s the thing about depression that also makes it soooo dangerous- sometimes you don’t even realize you have it until the fog clears and you actually want to go places and do things.”
