May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which has become dear to my heart. If you’ve spent a lifetime fighting a battle no one can see, getting a chance to talk about it can be cathartic, especially if some fear or stigma prevented you from discussing it before. In my case, I simply didn’t have the vocabulary to describe what has been going on inside me for as long as I can remember, nor did I have any idea there was help available. Learning the language of psychology as well as its history and application gave me great relief and paved the way to finding a treatment that worked for me.…
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Mental Illness: Things I Wish I Had Known
I will not attempt to fit 29 years of a life marred by mental illness into a single blog article. However, in the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month, I would like to offer up a few thoughts that would have benefited me immensely as I navigated my own journey. I didn’t learn these things until I’d suffered through years of pain, shame, and confusion, avoiding help because I feared judgment. But maybe I can ease yours by offering what I’ve learned. If you’ve had even peripheral experience with mental illness, you’ve surely experienced your share of well-intentioned and negligibly researched advice on the subject. Here is a list of…