“I asked my therapist about it, but she said I didn’t have it because I wasn’t ‘manipulative,’ which only added to the stigma. I decided to switch therapists.”
‘I got straight A’s in school. But mental illness doesn’t care, it doesn’t discriminate.’: Woman shares journey with depression, social anxiety, BPD to ‘lessen the stigma’
‘She was surrendered by her mom. It‘s a MIRACLE she’s alive.’: Mom adopts 2 girls with Reactive Attachment Disorder, ‘We need to raise awareness for adoptive families’
“Due to safety concerns, she needed to be the youngest child in the home. We started noticing things we couldn’t understand. We knew she had an extremely high IQ, but she began cheating. She started to lie more and more. I wasn’t prepared.”
‘At 14 years old, I knew something wasn’t right. Something inside me was changing.’: Man details mental health journey
“I vowed to make a change, not only for my loved ones, but to give myself a chance.”
‘I have over 1,000 people living in my body, all with different personalities.’: Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder seeks to educate others
“All of them have different personalities, perspectives, opinions, feelings. Most of the time, things get quite messy and chaotic.”
‘Am I going to get sick?’ I lived in fear of myself and what people thought of me. I started ripping my hair out.’: Woman shares struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder, ‘It gets so much better’
“I found myself missing school daily. I’d wake up, feel a little sick, and have a full-blown panic attack. Panic attacks made me hate every second of my life. I wanted to end it all.”
‘You’re just an attention-seeker!’ Kids pushed me. ‘I can’t carry on.’ I felt hopeless.’: Woman with Borderline Personality Disorder finds self-love, ‘I’m capable of amazing things’
“‘It’s just a teenage phase, she’ll grow out of it,’ doctors said. I didn’t see a future for myself. I was just a label.”
‘You don’t deserve better than him.’ I saw texts with a girl we both knew. My thoughts ate me alive.’: Woman diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder shares mental health journey, urges others to ‘accept help’
“‘How could I let this happen to me?’ My family looked so hurt. My mother, holding back tears, and my father, who is one of the bravest people I know, both looked terrified. My thoughts were eating me alive.”
‘I felt waves of heat and a tingling as I fell to the ground. ‘I think I’m dying!’ Something inside me hurt badly.’: Woman details journey with Borderline Personality Disorder
“My mom had to peel me off the side of the road in front of our home. I don’t think they understood it hurt, like my heart was being slashed to bits. Alcohol and mental illness don’t mix.”
‘He was cheating. ‘How will we break it to the kids?’ I waddled through bankruptcy. Divorce was the lifesaver I needed.’: Divorcee details journey to self-love
“A dear friend mentioned therapy, very casually over delicious avocado toast and latte. I finally bit the bullet and gave in. I cried so hard I could feel the ghosts of all my unspoken terrors lifting off my shoulders.”
‘My parents broke the news. ‘You were adopted at age 2.’ For the first time, I understood my parents had left me behind, forever.’: Adoptee overcomes addiction, ‘I needed to fall in love with myself again’
“I felt unloved. I tried to prove my worth and acted out to get attention from loved ones. At 14, I started experimenting with drugs. I continued on a rampage until I found heroin at age 15 with the help of an older boyfriend. ‘Please let me come home,’ I begged. I tried to stop many times. Then, one day, I found out I was pregnant. That little heartbeat was the sound of a chapter of my life closing forever.”
