My name is Jessica. I am a mental illness survivor. My story is no fairy tale, I suffered for many years and sometimes still do. However I refuse to suffer in silence. I come from a colorful background full of people with alcoholism, addiction and mental illness. I truly believe some of my suffering I was born with and some of it is due to trauma I have endured over the years. I have been hospitalized multiple times since 2007 because of my mental health and have been in treatment off and on since that first hospitalization. Now the trouble I face is exactly that, my treatment. I was initially diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. It took 3 years and a few more hospitalizations to get a PTSD diagnosis. Now here we are another almost 10 years later and I have spent the last year begging my treatment team to have me re-evaluated. They are treating me for bi-polar with panic disorder. I’m sure my story is very similar to many out there. 

The amount of help available is tremendous but finding someone who actually listens and truly cares is few and far in between. Even self-advocating has done little to improve anything. Most of my help comes from my peers and family supports. Although sometimes even that is counter productive. I truly believe if we come together as a united front only we can make the changes needed to understand the brain more and properly enlighten our communities. We have the power to support one another and make changes. Myself and some of my peers are beginning an online support community called Faking Normal to Finding Freedom. Our goal is to support peers, finance brain research, and to accomplish policy change in the state to include mental health awareness in school curriculum.