“Oh, my God. I could’ve died!’ I didn’t recognize my mental breakdown until I nearly stepped in front of a speeding bus.”
‘You’ll get over it.’ She patted me on the back and left. I’d never felt so alone in my life.’: Woman shares journey with chronic stress, anxiety, ‘There is hope’
‘If you send me home, I will die.’ The doctor looked me in the eyes. ‘We’re all going to die.’: Mental illness, chronic pain warrior finds peace through therapy, ‘I accept myself as I am’
“I’ve been in a car wreck I shouldn’t have walked away from. I’ve attempted suicide 3 times. I’ve come close to death often. ‘Why do I exist?’ Now I knew exactly why I’m here.”
‘We need you to make us not feel crazy. We need you to keep us grounded. Loving someone with anxiety isn’t easy, but stick with us.’: Woman battling anxiety says ‘we love harder than most’
“We need you to remind us we aren’t actually dying. This feeling will pass. We are not crazy, and everything will be alright. Sometimes, we will need you to hold us close, but other times, we will want you to be nowhere near us. Loving someone with anxiety is not easy.”
‘I slipped in the most dramatic fashion. All of us laughed. This wouldn’t have happened this time last year.’: Mom enjoys ‘beautiful moment’ after struggle to find right antidepressant
“There is no shame in needing help. None. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have been present. I would have wanted to leave.”
‘I’m fine! I have it figured out!’ I struggled in secret as I hid behind my smile. I woke up in a suicide room.’: Woman shares her ADHD journey to make mental health ‘less secretive and stigmatized’
“My therapist couldn’t fit my hours. I didn’t bother finding a new one because, ‘I’m fine!’ Then, I hoped the floor would open up and I would just disappear. These awful, yellow, smiley hospital socks were staring up at me.”
‘My father was unfaithful and left my mother for another woman. I wanted my life to end.’: Young woman blogs about her depression to help fight the stigma, ‘I am finally able to live my truth’
“I wasn’t eating. Things that once made me happy no longer did. I erased all those years from my memory.”
‘I’m doomed,’ he says. ‘I can’t do this anymore. I don’t know how I’m going to live like this. He’s hurting me.’: Woman sheds light on boyfriend’s struggles with OCD, mental illness
“I say, ‘You’re not a bad person.’ I hold my boyfriend in my arms, feeling his normally strong chest shake uncontrollably with giant, heart wrenching sobs. There’s nothing I can do, except hold him tighter.”
‘It’s like a virus,’ the counselor says. ‘It wants to keep living inside you.’ Nobody should have to experience it.’: Young woman details severe depression, ‘Show yourself some compassion’
“I think to myself, ‘It sounds nice to pick up my guitar again. I can pull out some of my watercolors. I can call a friend.’ But a few days later, I still haven’t done any of those things. It feels overwhelming and pointless.”
‘Just get out of bed and work out.’ A darkness set over me. I was in the therapist’s office at 6 weeks pregnant.’: Woman shares reality of prenatal depression, ‘I hope women feel understood, not abandoned’
“Within a week of getting a positive pregnancy test, I could barely function. This darkness was scary and not something I had the tools to combat. It was like I was gone, and there was no magic solution to get me back.”
‘When I walk into a room, I feel like people were talking about me. I’m constantly wondering if so-and-so likes me, or if I’m annoying them.’: Woman urges ‘anxiety doesn’t make you broken’
“You wake up with your own issues, and still get sh*t done. Anxiety doesn’t make you broken. If anything, it makes you resilient.”
