Personal Narrative: My Experience With Mental Illness

I’ve always been passionate about understanding others; stepping into their shoes and seeing, thinking, and appreciating the lives they live. I think it is important to take that extra step and see things from a different point of view. It is the only way to achieve a true understanding. I believe in this philosophy so much so, that it’s one of the main reasons I have this blog; to give others a glimpse of a life with mental illness. I’ve been in treatment for 2 months and 26 days and I think it’s time for another peek into my brain.

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.

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.

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

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,

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.

I agree! Conditions have improved and certainly the corrupt institutions that were so fraught with abuses have now left our landscape. Unfortunately, in many ways, our jails and prisons now stand in their place housing untold numbers of people more in need of therapeutic treatment than castigation. There is no doubt my age played a role in my distress as I was still looking to my mother as an anchor to ameliorate the confusing and surreal nature of what I was seeing. Additionally, with regard to stigma, I clearly remember not wanting anyone to know my grandfather was dealing with a mental disorder. Somehow, his mental illness would spill over onto me and I would become tainted, my mental competency would be questioned. Does it run in the family?

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.

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.

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

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.

During the process of creating the product, I learned that how I was able to connect myself to the mental illness with my previous experience as a patient with mental illnesses. I was able to relate, how an illness can name people based only on their disabilities. This project made me interested to study deeper not only in the abuse of mental institutions but psychology and mental illnesses as well. I was able to get a chance to learn about individual stories on abuse,and how it affected them. I believe that the problem will worsen if we do not acknowledge the abuse. The victims should not be betrayed by the society when they are looking for a

Although, I continued to encounter each stage of life event markers, and surpass each one to go onto the next (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). As in life we develop more each day, during the adult years cognitive and socioemotional functions will continue to develop and evolve from the ages 30’s and beyond (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). When I reached the age of 30 years old I decided I wanted more from life, than just a menial job, I want a career. At the age of 30 years old I started LPN school, my children were old enough that they could help around the home while I studied. One year later I graduated from nursing school as an LPN, this was a great accomplishment for me, I was then able to pursue employment that would matter in the lives of others.

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.