Personal Narrative: My Mental Health

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.

The research I have uncovered from talking with people who cope with a mental illness have had an either traumatic or rough childhood. They have faced hardships such as death in the family, parental substance abuse, or molestation. Some hardships have been the cause of their substance abuse and/or depression while others have always had the illness (such as bi polar disorder) but lacked others understanding and medical intervention.

Mental illness is very common. According to MIND (2009), a mental health charity, about one in four people in Britain will receive this diagnosis at some point in their life. At any one time up to one in six people have a mental health problem (Department for Health, 2011). Despite this, there is a great deal of controversy about what ‘mental illness’ is, what causes it, and how people can be helped to recover from it. People who are experiencing mental or emotional distress are often very reluctant to see their experiences as ‘mental illness’ and

I had a stroke about 2 years ago, I could not see, walk or talk. I almost gave up on being a productive citizen. I was sent to a rehab facility and started therapy. I knew that I have to do something to be gain to astablish my health, I knew that I could not do it alone. However, I always believed that God makes no mistakes, but I would have to put forth some efford in rehabliting myself. God have placed me in a place where I had to take charge of my life. I have always believed in Gods great work, but I would have to do his will. I started praying more than ever, studying my Bible more and establishing a relationship with him! He began healing my body, my mind and my soul. Now, I'm very Spiritual, Healthy, and I'm always finding time to not

Darryl: I continued smoking and sexing, it’s a wonder the police never caught me. I frequented places I would have never gone to before using crack. I quickly ran out of money and both my mother and father were sending money to help pay my rent and I was using that to support my habit. I finally came to a moment of clarity that I could not continue on in this manner and I needed help. I contacted both my parents and told them what was happening, neither one of them were happy about hearing that I was addicted to crack. My father sent me a plane ticket to return back to Detroit. After arriving back in Detroit my father had me admitted to an inpatient drug rehab at Henry Ford Hospital. I went through a four-day detox and hospitalization for 28 days. During treatment I was required to attend AA and NA meetings on site, I was given a therapist to help me overcome and face my depression. I attended an outpatient program for over 6 months and attended NA meetings everyday until I was successfully clean for one year. I think my biggest challenge was facing my depression; I had never been to a therapist before because I did not want family and friends to know that I was suffering from mental disorder. I still to this day

Do I have a personality disorder? When I am around certain friends I act differently, depending on who they are. For example, around Aayla, I am outgoing and I laugh more. When I am with Leslie, I tend to be more shy and sometimes immature. I think its it’s because they are different in some ways.

I never fit in during my childhood, I always wanted to do my own thing but I was never allowed to. I was trapped in the constraints of convention. My own parents tried to change me, my own parents made me go to therapy, my own parents hated me. I had nobody that I could talk to, I was bad in school and that never changed. All I ever wanted was to travel the world my whole life, but no, my parents forced me to do exactly what they did in life so that I’d be successful. They didn’t understand that individuals should be able to live the life they want, then again not many people realize the importance of living the way you want to. “Go to school, go to university, get a good job, get married and have kids.” That’s all I ever heard from anyone,

Days before my freshman year of high school, I learned that like the devil, mental illnesses go by many names. My mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia comorbid with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and agoraphobia. Paranoia, psychosis, and poverty of speech infiltrated her mind and silently

I want to say how sorry I am about some of the things that I say to you when I am so angry with you. I can’t ever justify those things. I wish that I had an explanation for why I am so brutal. I will admit to trying to hurt you. I should never fight like this, but I can’t explain my schizophrenic nature.

My overall health is fair. I am very athletic because I play many sports. The sports that I play are soccer, swimming, golfing, horseback riding, wakeboarding and water skiing. I also love veggies and fruits. My favorite fruit is pineapple and my favorite vegetable is carrots. Though I participate in many activities and love fruits and veggies there are things that I can work on.

Nearly one of every three of us experiences psychiatric symptoms each year. These range from the relatively minor, such as a short period of anxiety or grief during times of stress, to the severely disabling and painful. Nearly half of us have family member or a close friend with serious mental illness. In mental illness suicide rates are high among individuals with bipolar, depression and schizophrenia.

Sometimes I miss being sick; The grimiest part of me wishes I had stayed in that familiar city of gray and mental illness and whatever the opposite of healing is. Where there was nothing to laugh about, but plenty to write about. I've considered myself to be recovered from my eating disorder for three years, but I still write about it in present tense. And for once, I don't want to write about this. For the first time I am embarrassed, instead of proud of all of the mad things I've done for happiness. When a friend at dinner makes a casual comment on calories, the scoreboard in my head illuminates with numbers again. Once, I cut a ribbon the size I wanted to be and wore it around my waist like a bracelet. Bathroom scales make me feel nostalgic,

My uncle explains to me that she left without a warning and got on a plane. She left the house in the early hours of the morning which awoke the housekeeper. She refused to answer any of the housekeeper’s questions and quickly shut the door. She decided to call my mother seconds before the plane departed to briefly tell her that she was leaving Switzerland for good.

I have met this wonderful girl over a social website called instagram.She was going into 12th grade and I was ready to go into my first year of college . After a couple of days of talking to her, we hangout and a week after that, I asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes and it was a tremendous great feeling to have found someone very special like her.She was very caring person , even very good looking as well. She had told me about her past and all the shocking things she had to go through with "this obsessive , lunatic ex". Honestly, I didn't think any issues would come up with him. I was prepared for what could happen , well at least I thought so at that moment.

I have seen mental illnesses like depression and addictions through volunteering in clinics and such but I have never had anyone close do me affected by a mental condition. Last semester my best friend had a bad break up with her boyfriend and was also struggling in school. This semester things did not get much better for her as she was still struggling from school and still constantly upset about here breakup a few months earlier. I began noticing a shift in her personality as she would seem hopeless and make remarks about “killing herself” that did not really come off as a joke. It was when she started making suicidal remarks that I began urging her to seek help though the University. She was resistant about seeking help so I always told