Personal Narrative: My Experience With Mental Illness

If you were to see me walking down the street you would never guess that I was in foster care. I dress and act like your everyday 17 year old, and in a way I am. Except I was placed in foster care when I was 15 years old. Scratch that I put myself in foster care when I was 15 years old. I bet you’re asking “why”? “Why would you do such a thing”? Well my mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia also known as disorganized schizophrenia. Just in case you don't know disorganized schizophrenia is characterized by incoherent and illogical thoughts and behaviors, so when you are 15 that's not a good situation to be in. My mother couldn't keep a job therefore she could not support us.

Let’s face it, I was bonkers. Nutty, some would say. I was officially deemed crazy by stepping into Wellstone. I was batty like a mellowed out, teenage Charlie Sheen. Who knew that an honors student would be sent to a psychiatric hospital for depression amongst other things? I always kind of knew that is what I would end up doing. It has to get darker before it gets better, right? At least I had my “amazing” people skills that would end up helping nearly all of the staff like me and most of the patients despise me.

When it comes to my mental health, I can honestly say so far in my personal life, I have never experienced with any mental health issues. I think that I am very unaware what people go through when they have a mental health issue and I would really like to know more about the different mental health problems. People whom I am close with that have experience with mental health. My sister suffers from anxiety, but not severely. I have a few cousins whom I am close to that have experienced with mental health problems. One of my cousins suffers from the mental illness, anorexia. My sisters and I were very close to her when we were younger, but when her mental illness took over her life, she became a different person.

It’s a struggle to get out of bed sometimes, I often just sit there struggling to comprehend the sequence of events which have taken place over the past year. I mean, I’m used to this now, its normal to me, but the fact that this has happened and that I am now ‘disabled’ as people would put it is hard to get my head around. And every time I look down I’m reminded of the pain and the struggle I faced, it’s a physical scar which links me to my grueling past, a physical and emotional journey.

If I were a famous YouTube sensation, my most watched video would be called: My Depression and Anxiety Story. When I was a Sophomore in high school, I went through a long period of time where I felt utterly miserable and alone all of the time. I would want to share my story with everyone, so they would know that even the most unlikely person can go through hardships. This is my story.

“So how is our Jane Doe?” he asked, sinking into a purple armchair and crossing his legs.

The depression is overwhelming. I cry uncontrollably. At its worst, I cannot move. Gravity seems to have added weight tenfold. I wake up in my bed, struggling to get out. I am unable to. Breathing hurts. I try to cry out for help, but I cannot move my mouth to form the words in my disgusted mind. I am trapped in my own head. I am trapped in my own body, a body that is entirely numb.

what to say though. Just say what you feel just as we are doing right now we both can see the therapist. Now I think I can sleep mom goodnight. Goodnight son.

My struggle with mental illness began in 7th grade. I began having obsessions I knew were abnormal for any normal person, but I couldn’t stop them. My thoughts were an unstoppable train running through everything else. School took a backseat to just trying to be normal. I silently struggled with my thoughts for four years. I tried my hardest not to let on that I wasn’t normal, at risk of people thinking I was crazy. But the summer before my junior year,

Going through something terrible wanting to make a change to make it better. For your own food, fresh starts can have lots of meanings to it. For example, starting a new school, having a hard time with family and friends, others or wanting to change for making bad decisions. It can have multiple meanings to it ; in other words, what you believe can make it a good thing.

I loved your post. I completely do this all the time and I hoped your dinner turned out awesome. I do think didn’t think it was as humorous, some steps you could have taken to help with your preoccupation is responding, and being mindful of your coworker. You were off to the right start by asking her questions but I think you should have responded to her and it would have helped your mind not to wander. “Mindfulness is being fully present in the moment” (Wood, 2016). Even though you were hungry and dinner sounded wonderful, I don’t think you were fully present in the conversation. Great post.

When I was in my freshman year of high school, I remember my friend, Maddie, have an anxiety attack. She was frantic, couldn’t catch her breath, and dizzy. I didn’t know how to help her. I didn’t know what was wrong. I tried to calm her down the best I could. She eventually calmed down, and went home. A few days, she told me that she had bipolar disorder and one of her symptoms was that she suffered from anxiety. I thought it was a joke, I have some rough days and issues being decisive, that doesn’t mean I’m bipolar or that I have anxiety. I thought she was being overdramatic, as I knew Maddie to be sometimes.

It came in waves. It started when I was 14 years old, in my 8th grade year. While I have no idea what triggered this, I do know that it was a six-year long slope of mental health degradation pushing me to my breaking point, depriving me of sleep, energy, and my own identity. Unfortunately for me, my family has always been skeptical and critical of mental health issues. My parents always taught me that mental health is a scam and those who claim to have an issue are simply weak. So, it may not be much of a surprise that when I approached my mother about what I was experiencing, she screamed "No, you do not have a problem! You need to grow up!" Her words still ring in my head, and I still remember thinking, I am alone. I have nowhere to turn

Because of my experience with depression, and the incredible positive impact made by both my mother and a guidance counselor at school, I decided to follow my curiosity and major in psychology. As someone that has looked into the jaws of darkness and almost been swallowed, I feel that I need to do something with my life that helps others. I feel that anyone who has been hurt has a deep connection with those that are hurting, particularly as it relates to mental illness. Every time I even think about going into a non-helping career I feel a sharp jab of guilt in my gut. I simply can’t be out just for myself, because if everyone else was, I would never have recovered. I hope that at some point in my life I’ll be able to help someone the way I

Growing up, I experienced a wide variety of mental illnesses within my family. In my younger years, I always wondered why my family had so many issues different from most families (or so I thought). As I have gotten older, had my own experiences, had friends with mental illnesses and learned more about the brain in my General Psychology class; it actually began to amaze me more people do not experience mental illness because of how complex the brain is. I attribute my curiosity in Psychology to my own experiences with mental illness and with the experience of my family members and friends.