“I’m smelly. There’s oil and debris gunked on my face. I have knotted hair, armpit hair. Other hair. I’m disgusting right now. There’s no other way of saying it. Mental illness sounds cute when you put it on a post with a person staring in the distance saying they’re ‘depressed.’ But depression is more than just sadness. It’s raw. It’s not showering for 6 days, then collapsing in your bed, exhausted, when you finally do.”
‘Why are you home early?’ my husband asks. I haven’t showered in 6 days. He didn’t know. People with depression are great at hiding it.’: Woman candidly shares the reality of mental illness
‘Her hair loss isn’t from stress.’ The pleasant chit-chat stopped. ‘There’s no cure for this.’: Little girl diagnosed with Alopecia starts head scarf company to ‘help all of the bald kids’
“We noticed a handful of brown curls on Rosie’s pillow. ‘Maybe she’s stressed about the new baby?’ The next morning, even more curls. ‘Maybe she’s allergic to her shampoo?’ Monday came and the last of her hair fell out. Our pediatrician assured us it was stress. It wasn’t. Our hope that this would be a temporary condition, even a funny story someday, slowly faded. Instead, we had to get used to the unkind stares and finger-pointing.”
‘He lit my insides on fire. So, I did it. I married him. My body signaled that something was off. I pegged it as nerves. I didn’t know about the pools of women.’ Woman breaks free from abusive relationship
“It was the same with everyone. The same love songs, the same pet names, the same date night spots, the same EVERYTHING. In a ten-day period, he cheated with 3 people. He played it off as him being drunk and stupid. I believed it at the time. I didn’t tell friends or family. ‘If I can’t even make a marriage work, what else will I fail at?!’ I kept it private, until things began to boil.”
‘A car of teenage boys drove past and yelled out, ‘Ugly, bald b***h.’ I pushed myself back to work. I didn’t want to let anyone down.’
“I started to master the fake smile and the ‘I’m fine’ answer to people’s questions. My body needed a break. And then the cutting began. Kitchen scissors were used.”
‘There is a chance you will lose all your hair.’ WHAT? Bald spots started appearing. They didn’t know if it would ever come back.’
“There was nothing they could do for me, little did I know that was just the beginning.”
‘Oh my God!,’ I gasped as I frantically pawed at my hair, as if I could find those absent hairs hiding just out of sight. ‘How long has it been like this?!’
“I quickly showered and washed my hair the morning of our first son’s baptism. We were running late, so I grabbed a brush and hair tie and resolved to do my hair in the car. I flipped down the visor. My eyes caught, to my horror, a glimpse of my new hairline. I shrieked.”
‘Walk faster!’ he shouted at me. No more grandma to shield me from bullies. I’d wake up with saliva foaming from my mouth. When I got the results, my fear became a reality.’
“I never received chocolates or flowers from admirers. I didn’t get a date to our senior prom. I went instead with a friendly gay classmate. We were the outcasts. I cried on the way home.”
‘I was petrified, sobbing into Jon’s shoulder. He leaned over and held my hand. If he wanted to leave the relationship, I would understand.’
“Jon and I met on an online dating website and hit it off right away. When I flew to Louisiana to visit him for the first time, we both knew. This was it. As I delved into wedding details, I was plagued by lower back pain that wouldn’t go away.”
