I was fired from my job. I feel that I was wrongfully fired. I told them that I was not well. I worked at a mental health agency and was hired as a peer support specialist.  So they knew about my mental illness.  I have been working there for 2yrs. They never had a problem with me. This new supervisor that I last had as a trigger to me. To make a long story short. The last time she snapped at me, I snapped back. I told her that she need to learn how to talk to people .  I ended up having a panic attack. I didn’t curse, I didn’t touch her, nor threw anything.  I had all of my doctors excuses so they couldn’t use that to get rid of me. However,  they said the way I acted they had to let me go.  That happened this February,  and my life hasn’t been the same.  My mental health has been at a low since.  No matter how I try to move on i just can’t.  There are so many things that that supervisor did that upsetted me. This woman called my therapist and my phyctrist. Like was lying. I have been thinking that I should of reported to the Director of the agency.  She was always nice to me and did tell me that I could talk to her. But I never did. 😒😒😒😢😢😢

I am 32, a United States Marine Corps veteran, an auditor and I am living with bipolar disorder II, which causes symptoms of anxiety and depression episodes.

I never truly understood what it meant to have a mental illness until I realized that I was constantly worrying and feeling down. My depression episodes manifested as days of extreme lows where I struggled to get out of bed and perform day-to-day tasks and activities. I spoke to some friends who were dealing with similar symptoms, and they encouraged me to seek professional help. My bipolar diagnosis was identified when I was in a serious car accident while experiencing a manic episode.

Discovering a mental illness while recovering from a major accident was not easy. Here is what helped me accept my diagnosis and recover from my physical and mental injuries:

• My family and friends stepped up tremendously ready to assist and encourage me. I was an emotional and mental mess, and they helped put me back together.
• I had to position myself to receive advice from my family and friends who are familiar with mental illness and are actively managing their own mental illnesses. I also had to remain open to receiving information regarding coping strategies, being mindful of my mood and warning signs of a potential manic episode or manic depression.
• Setting small goals helped me find my way back to myself. I am not the same person I was before the accident, and trying to get back to that person is not realistic. I had to accept the now me in order to move forward.   

Today, I am different because I am living with my diagnosis and my diagnosis is not controlling me. I see my therapist and psychologist on a regular basis. I am mindful of my mood on a daily basis and aware of the warning signs of manic and depressive episodes. I ultimately have taken charge of my life and my health.

There is a need for mental illness to be recognized as a real and serious condition in community specifically the African American community. People need to be educated on the various mental illness diagnoses and symptoms and see a therapist at least 2-4 times a year to maintain their mental health. Education and therapy ensure they are not putting themselves or others in danger. Many people are unaware of their mental illness and choose to suffer in silence. We need to end this process of thinking and encourage people to seek support.

Mental illness screenings should be done 2-4 times a year for preventative reasons, just like an annual physical examinations and biannual dental cleanings. Mental illness screenings should be no different.

My hope is that people who live with mental illness and the people who love them will eventually see all health as equally important.

Hi all, I stumbled across this website as I was doing some research on mental health awareness. I just wanted to take the opportunity to praise this site for giving support to those who have suffered and continue to suffer with a mental illness.

I see people have submitted short stories on their past/present regarding struggles with mental health and how they’ve battled with it. It is inspiring, because the problem with having a mental illness is that you feel that you’re in a never ending dark tunnel, with no light whatsoever. But thankfully there is a light, no matter how useless life seems.

I as a 20 year old girl, have in fact been stuck in that tunnel too. It’s not pretty, in fact it’s rather exhausting and quite frankly daunting. Maybe I am one of the lucky souls who has found the light, as I hope others do to. I am fully aware that with my condition, it can come back and bite me. Sadly I can’t control it, but with the love of great people, it seems easier now to grab the bull by the horns.

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I’ve been battling mental illness most of my life. I was first diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) when I was in the 1st grade. At that time, mental health wasn’t spoken about and no one knew what was wrong; even I didn’t know what was wrong. It wasn’t until later in life that I found out that ADHD was a mental illness. I was then diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which later turned into bipolar-depression when I was 17. A year later, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, which I later found out was Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Back in April of 2017, I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Through out my life, these illnesses have defined me. They defined me by how I was coping with life, school, etc. Now, I refused to be defined by these illnesses. I’m now getting the help I need and I know one day I will recover. I’m now speaking up more about mental health and how it affects people. I know the more I speak up about it, the more people understand. I hope that by sharing my story, it will inspire someone and let them know that they are not alone. 

The reason I want to share my story is because I want to bring awareness to mental health and stop the stigmas. I want to promote positive outlooks for moms with mental illness. Not everyone is going to be the same just because they have the same diagnosis. And a diagnosis does not define someone.

I have been affected by mental health personally since my teenage years. I recently have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. When I read about BPD I thought it sounded pretty accurate and it was nice to feel like I new one of the answers as to why I was struggling. The parts of BPD that hit home the most with me were the criteria of the diagnosis stating that those with BPD have a hard time regulating emotions and also that they can struggle with finding purpose.

As a mom it makes me sad to realize I worry so much about purpose or think so much about what my purpose is, what my meaning is. Why can’t I feel like being a mom is enough meaning? Why isn’t being a good wife is enough purpose? The ruminating obsession with questioning what I should be doing and why constantly flows through my head.

During my recent hospitalization followed by an outpatient program I was dealing with multiple areas of mental illness. I’m also diagnosed with generalized anxiety and major depressive disorder. I was 6 months postpartum, a stay at home mom with my baby and her sister, my other daughter, who is 2. At the time I started to experience postpartum depression as well.

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The more I’ve been open about my mental illness, the more I realize there aren’t enough non-whites who are a part of the dialogue.  Every time I open a website there are tons of people taking steps to better mental health but from one key perspective… white american.  I have come to a clear conclusion that mental health in many communities won’t get better because our voices are not being heard.  We are not a part of the larger discussion and for reasons I haven’t quite grasped… it serves a purpose.  Like Black Lives Matter, there needs to be a movement for our mental health.  We need to claim our narrative in this discussion or there won’t be any strides.  With my depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation; I want to be that person who can be related to through the larger organizations.  At present, I don’t see anyone I can relate to.  All I see are suits.  I’m getting better at expressing my wants, needs, desires and just because the money and attention is being poured to certain groups doesn’t mean we should be ignored.

I Am a 61 yr old woman who has dealt with mental health issues all my life. Sometimes life just becomes too hard for me. I try to navigate the systems that are there to assist us but when I am in a downward spiral my brain does not think and cope as well as it should. I like many people with mental illness are alone. I also have had people close to me use my mental disability as a way to control or hurt me. It takes me a lot to ask for help out of fear that I will be locked up in a mental ward and forced to take medication that either does not work for me or is not good for my mind and body. What I don’t understand is why society thinks that doping a person up to become a slobbering, shuffling idiot with no feelings is better than working with that person first and foremost cognitively instead of numbing their minds and feelings. Ups and downs in life is a part of life but the stigma of being mentally disabled does not make me different than most yet the way society thinks that I need to be put away and medicated to the point of zombie gives me great fear to speak up and ask for help. I have been suicidal in the past since I was a young girl but that doesn’t mean that I still am or want to be yet society drama once u do something u will always do that. Well I don’t want to do that. Some people change and mature and others don’t want to Admit defeat and turn there like me ,yet I am threatened if I open my mouth and let others know how I feel, they will use this in ways of control and do more damage and make the situation worse. I fear if I openly admit I need help because of my mental disability society thinks they have the right to do things against my will that hurt matters instead of help.

There is a long standing history that the institution of mental health has been unjustly accusing those who do not exhibit mentally-ill behaviors or symptoms their entire life and placed into mental wards to hit their numbers and make that number grow.

I have a read a book called “The Myth of Mental Illness” by Szasz. And while it covers some portion of psychiatry as being valid, it does not address that people without mental illness are placed into mental disorder categories using law enforcement(CIT) or excessive use of force and by fabricated testimonials and not real evidence. They are also a silent generation as they are placed into a system where they feel they cannot speak up without sounding like they are going against an overwhelming power in which they feel they cannot win, as they have been set up to go into the healthcare system without real symptoms and pay up into it.

The silent people who have been unjustly accused and placed into this unfair healthcare system of greed are stigmatized while they need legal representation that would be so brave to fight for them, find it hard to prove with sullied testimonials surrounding them that believe they should be placed there. As those that place them there are also scared or hiding about being targeted instead.

The other side is that, if mental health practitioners do want higher numbers, mental disorder/illness does not become as stigmatized over time due to a higher rise in numbers of those as mentally-ill. As we would like almost everyone to have a prescription and see therapist on a regular basis, that is another topic yet to be vetted openly. But also, never discussed.

Criminally-ill are also very different from the mental illness category, I also have problems with this in the press and with pro-gun stories as they are often looped in with high-functioning mentally ill stable members of society.

Mental Health Awareness…. end the stigma…This is for my mother. .Jean…this is our story… My mother suffered her whole life with mental illness…I watched her ups and downs from as far back as i can remember..she was brilliant and artsy creative productive and efficient took care of everything perfectly.. we moved 10 times in 13 years because my dad wanted to keep her happy and she would decorate and remodel the houses painting wall papering and taking care of me and my sisters…. and then she would start to change and become crazed over whelmed and aggitated unable to finish all of the projects or keep up and get angry easily and scream and yell and break things and come after me verbally or with a belt and be out of control then she would slow down and crumble and crash into a deep tearful depression unable to get out of bed and take care of us kids and our home and basic necessities many times leading to hospitalization on the psyciatric ward…I remember visiting her many times in different wards ..i didn’t understand it when I was young why my mommy was like this…why she loved me and hated me…was angry and sad….

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I have been dealing with mental illness for only a year however its only cuz i wasnt aware had mental health issues when i was younger.  I now know that always had issues and i am slowly getting used to it as part of my life. I was abused as a kid both physically and emotionally and it made my life a living hell. My birth mom beat me had sex in front of me starved me and ignored and neglected my needs so she becane homless cus she refused to work to tske care of me her only daughter so i was shipped off to live with my birth father and his wife my soon to be evil stepmother. She would force feed me shove my fish sticks down my throat when i said i was full or feeling sick it didnt matter had to clean my plate. She stole and hid my debit card even tho i worked for all the money that was on it. She would hide my clothes that i would wear alot and that i liked. Make me tske the bus everywhere cuz i didn’t deserve a ride home. I was told and forced to be into guys even tho im gay. I couldnt have friends or girlfriends ext it goes on and on told i was a whore told i desrved to be raped. I moved out finally and lived alone for 3 months and now finally here i am witb my grandparents who took me in when i needed it. SO GLAD I MET MY FRIEND AND HAVE HER IN MY LIFE SHE SAVED MY LIFE WHETHER SHE KNOWS IT OR NOT. I HAVE TRIED TO KILL MYSELF 4 TIMES DUE TO TRAUMA OF MT PAST and depression and bipolar mood swings i have now. But i am finally on my road to recovery.