I am a middle-aged woman, married with two children. I was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at age 25. I am grateful to say that I have had tremendous support, terrific professional help, a strong will to recover, and a resolve to do whatever work necessary to overcome all of my trauma. Other miraculous help has been my spiritual beliefs and practices.
What we don’t often think about is how stress and anxiety can significantly increase during an election year and affect everyone’s mental health. Learn more about how to manage this stress and anxiety.
Despite outward success, I had been abusing drugs and alcohol since middle school, a habit I developed to escape emotions I didn’t know how to handle. I knew I had to change or continue suffering indefinitely. Slowly, meditation became a habit, helping me manage my emotions better.
I was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder at the age of 23. I went on to work for many years, marry, divorce, and have three children. And in my 30s I added anxiety and schizoaffective disorder to my mental health repertoire.
My goal is to destigmatize the topics of mental health and addiction and to create awareness so that people suffering can ask for help, know they are not alone, and realize there is always hope.
As a kid, mental health was a confusing mystery that no adult that I knew addressed with me. Coping skills, stress, anxiety, depression, and substance use all seemed like things to figure out on my own or with kids my own age who knew little more than I did.
Getting sick was both sudden and gradual. The timeline of my mental health disorder, or rather disorders because I endured several, was so erratic, waxing and waning, often corresponding to a momentous event in my life or the birth of one of my children or the death of a loved one.
Far too young, I used to dream about a place I could go where I wouldn’t have to worry. To know that there was a place you could go if you struggled with “mental problems”.
“As traumatized children, we always dreamed that someone would come and save us. We never dreamed that it would, in fact, be ourselves as adults.” – Alice Little
