Real Stories
"During my last year of high school my struggle began. I started to get symptoms that I thought would make me lose my sanity completely or just make me die. My brain felt broken and my mind was confused, disoriented and sometimes very scary. I couldn’t rest, eat or sleep. I felt like I couldn’t explain my inside world to anybody. I wanted to commit suicide just to get out of this. At that point it was impossible for me to keep up with school and I withdrew from my friends. My parents didn’t know what to do and how to help me. I was thrown between different hospital beds and doctors. To receive a diagnosis, (Bipolar Disorder), was a relief. There was actually a name for what I was experiencing! Finding the right medication showed however to be a struggle in itself. During the adjustment period, I had to go through worsening of symptoms to the point that I was just banging my head against the wall, had multiple rashes on my skin and face that made me never want to show my face again and a severe depression which made me want to lie in bed and never ever get up again. Finally, with right dosage of medication and therapy, I started to get my life back. Currently I’m working toward a Master’s degree in engineering. I feel like I was blessed with having a supportive family, but unfortunately many of my friends turned out to not be there for me. Even now, most people don’t know my story and I know that I can't tell it to just whoever, without getting that second look.”
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“I have to say that I feel like stigma associated with mental illness is often as big of a burden as the illness itself, and even worse sometimes. Because when you recover, the illness is gone, but not always the stigma. You are still that person with a history of mental illness that some people will look down on and not fully trust, since you once was “crazy”. People with mental illnesses are just so misunderstood. We are still like everyone else, we have feelings and we deserve respect. A mental disorder is as real as any other physical disorder. Why can't people just accept that and treat us like everyone else? Because we are not “less than” just because of our illness. I feel like if there would be acceptance and support instead of stigma, my road toward recovery would definitely have been faster and less challenging”.
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" I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder when as I was applying for college and tried to get into nursing school. This turned my world upside down and I had a hard time accepting the diagnosis. I knew I was different but at that time I didn’t know anything about mental illness. I didn’t know how to move on and what to do next. I lost confidence in myself to the label telling me how insane I was. Maybe I was completely insane, should I be locked in? What will happen to me? Those were my questions then. Today my story is different, because I never gave up hope, I’m recovering and living a pretty normal life. The most hurtful part was that I felt like people around me didn’t believe in me being able to achieve my goals and live a normal life. I’m proud that I proved those people wrong. I got into college, received a degree and have currently an occupation as a part-time recovery specialist. I also attend regular treatment and a local community center where I work with facilitating recovery groups and peer support training classes. I’ve learned how to cope with my illness and now I want to reach out to others to promote understanding and acceptance that is so desperately needed. " |
" My diagnosis is Schizoaffective Disorder. Is this who I am? No. I have a personality that defines me, I have life experience and I have my family. I wish our society would be as supportive as people close to me have been. But for some reason society has decided that when your body is out of control, we need to help, but when it comes to your mind, let’s try to stay away. There were times when I wanted to run away from myself if I could. But I had family, peer support groups as well as professional workers who believed in me and I was dedicated not to let them down. Believe me, recovery is not easy and it took a lot to get to the point where I am today. I now accept myself for who I am and I’m proud of my accomplishment. I think it’s gonna take a lot to change society and make mental illness fully acceptable. But if we talk about it, if people share their stories, if we educate each other we can hopefully get a step closer. " |
"As far as I can remember, I've always been a person that easily got worried about different things. Once it reached a point where I started to get physical symptoms, like muscle tension and headaches that the doctor told me was because of all the stress and worrying I was experiencing. At that time my parents were going through a divorce, my sister was diagnosed with leukemia and I just had too much on my mind. Things got better after a while, without me getting any professional help, but as I started a new job, high pressure and stress came back and I was having panic attacks. I was also constantly worried about everything around me. I believed something bad would happen, I would get sick or someone would die. In some way I realized that those thoughts were irrational, but I couldn’t help the feeling. Unfortunately my irrational thoughts became a reality when my sister died. This just worsened my symptoms to the point that I just couldn't sleep at all and thought I was going to lose my mind. But honestly, seeking treatment was not what I wanted to do. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone about my problems. I felt like treatment was for crazy people, but I’m not completely crazy and should be able to handle the problems on my own. With support from friends and family, I eventually decided to seek treatment. I received both medication and therapy. Afterwards I regret that I didn’t get help earlier, because now I understand that treatment and mental health problems is nothing to be afraid and ashamed of, I just wish more people would realize that." |
For more stories and blogs, please visit Time to Change - let's end mental health discrimination website.
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