Personal Narrative: A Migraine That Changed My Life

As a child I suffered tremendously with confusion, self hatred, and misunderstanding about my own sexuality. Growing up queer in a small town is never an easy thing. I went through years of denial, and hid all of my thoughts about what I thought could be. I was so muddled in an all too common train of thought that my first conclusion was that I was incapable of loving another human being. Having never experienced honest crushes or any emotional or physical attraction to the opposite sex, I was very frightened for my ability to one day have a family. This thought put me into a mode of paranoia and panic. I began to search any place I could for any other possibility, hoping for some form of medication or therapy to ail me of what I thought was a mental illness. After only a few minutes at the computer, I realized there was nothing wrong with my mind, or capability to love. I am just gay.

It has been made aware that a lot of individuals are struggling to come out to their families, or with struggling with gender issues that often lead to them killing themselves for not being accepted. This community often works with individuals within a group setting, to recognize the issues that they are experiencing to get advice on how to handle their issues or the emotions they are dealing with. Engaging with individuals of the LGBT community generally display a point of group facilitators with established values (Corey et al., 2010). Taking on this population will call for working with adults and children who are dealing judgments on being who they really are. It is important as a counselor to be prepared to protect the client in any way possible to lay those criticisms to rest and help clients of this group to be more comfortable in their own

One day at my school’s mass Mr. D volunteered to tell a story that related the gospel and homily. For the first time in a formal setting he had caught my attention right away. He faced the congregation and told his inspiring story. A baby and his mother boarded a flight one day. Bad luck came their way and the plane crashed. The pilot was the only survivor. As the pilot was exiting the plane eagerly trying to save himself, he heard a cry from the passenger area of the plane. He managed to find his way to a little baby boy crying in the hands of his mother. The baby had survived by the help of that kind pilot. That miracle baby was my middle school teacher and softball coach. Mr. D’s lost his mother that day, but due to the kindness of another individual his life was saved. This experienced has influenced and driven this elderly person to teach the youth. Mr. D teaches English to children as well as teaches children sports, his true

Homosexuality is not a “disease” as Dr. Levin and his colleagues would call it. During the process of this experiment, Levin learned that forced gender reassignment paired with other harsh methods does not cure hmosexuality, instead it can make indivduals reluctant to reveal their self- accepted lifestyles, can cause ideations of self-harm due to the emotional distress and mental confusion, and are overall detrimental to the individual's’

I was crippled and trapped between choosing what my society had taught me, what was considered to be right, and what I thought was better for me. Prior to summer academy and my immigration to the United States, I had a problem finding my true self in matters like accepting homosexuality. My thoughts and my judgments were corrupt in a sense that my reaction towards such people was solemnly based on what I had been taught. I was born and raised in an environment where homosexuality was considered to be an abomination and unlawful. After immigrating to the United States, I had little to no encounters with people who considered themselves as gay or lesbian etc. Unfortunately for me, upon attending the summer program, I was paired with a person who considered himself to be gay. Initially, every thought I had was filled with ignorance and closed mindedness. But then as time progressed and my grade depended on his effort, I decided to put all the negativity and what I knew aside and tried to learn something from this friend. By the end of the program, I found out that this person was just like me: funny, amiable, sociable and essentially the difference that existed between him and me, was our sexual

“People who have gone through conversion therapy face 8.9 times the rates of suicide ideation, face depression at 5.9 times the rate of their peers and are three times more likely to use illegal drugs and be at high risk for sexually transmitted infections.”(Stafford), even though it isn’t publically discussed to avoid controversies and public argument of the veil of abuse and homophobia throughout the United States for the LGBT community, the effects that these anti-gay therapy programs have on the youth and overall population of those in these camps is cold-hearted abuse and negligence that is plain out ignored no matter the situation. “In a poll by the Pew Research Center, roughly one-third of LGBT respondents said they had been physically threatened or attacked, while 40 percent said they had been rejected by a friend or family member because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”, many ex-patients are encountered with rejection and hesitance from the society around them, intensifying the feelings of rejection from before and during their time in the ex-gay therapy

Whoever this teacher was she or he wasn't there so I just grabbed the text book from his or her desk and slouched down in my chair at the back of the room.

The mental health of individuals in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community is something that is a serious problem. For most of the history of the United States and many different parts of the world LGBT people faced much persecution and in some cases even death. This constant fear of discovery and the pressure that one feels on oneself when “in the closet” can lead to major mental distress. Research has shown that people who identify as LGBT are twice as likely to develop lifetime mood and anxiety disorders (Bostwick 468). This is extremely noticeable the past couple years in the suicides of bullied teens on the basis of sexual identity and expression. The stigma on simply being perceived as LGBT is strong enough to

Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity

By this time, the room became filled with girls who took time to welcome me personally. After a few exchanges, the singers began to start. The song lifted the room’s spirits, and everyone joined along in singing. Looking around, I became so happy to see young women close to my age having fun worshipping Christ. Faces were covered in smiles as the song ended. After the song was done, the president stood up and announced she would be the speaker. Sharing her personal testimony, my nerves were struck with the influence she had experienced. Finishing her story, she closed us out in prayer.

Alan Downs opens his book with five coming out stories from his patients that explain the difficulties that gay men face when trying to obtain a happy and fulfilled life. Throughout this section of the novel, Downs introduces the reader to how unique the situations of the beginning stages of life can be for each gay man. Downs

Greenan & Tunnel (2003) posit that the societal marginalization exerted on same-sex couples, translates into internalization of an inferior status (as cited in Wetcher & Bigner, 2012). Herdt (1989) describes the process of coming out as the process of introducing an individual’s sexual orientation to broader circles of people, commencing with the self. The fear of coming out is often associated with fears of emotional rejection by family members, or internal belief of disappointing one’s parents. To cope with this fear, often gay men resort to concealment of their identity (Herdt, 1989; Ramirez & Brown, 2010). The social construct of belonging to a minority community, the avoidant attachment style and the threat of conflict within the family of origin system acts as the reagent that evokes Steve’s emotional distress which he regulates by withholding disclosure. Brain’s feeling of insecurity and wanting reassurance could be attributed to the vast discrepancy between the interactions he has experienced with his family of origin and current family system he shares with Steve.

I had such a great day at clinical yesterday. I was finally able to see a vaginal delivery and that entire process. When I arrived in the morning, the mom had just received Cytotec, to help induce labor and ripen her cervix. She was forty-one weeks and zero. Around ten thirty in the morning, she asked for her epidural to manage her pain. We bolused her with fifteen hundred milliliters of lactated ringers to prevent hypotension. Shane was the certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA) who administered the epidural. It was very cool watching him administer all the needed pain relief medication before he administered the epidural to make sure that it would be placed in the epidural space in the spine. Then administered a small test dose, waited till a few blood pressures were taken, then administered the remaining about through an epidural pump. After the epidural was administered, I was able to administer her foley catheter. I was so happy that I was finally able to place one. I learned a few tricks from Maura (my nurse) as well. She taught me that it was easier to take the top off of the lubricant syringe and to place the tip of the foley inside of the syringe, that way it will not wiggle around and become unsterile. She also taught me to grab from the bottom of the labia and pull up, that way it ensures that I will have a clear entrance to