Excuses Or Explanations: How I Feel About My New Diagnosis

Excuses Or Explanations: How I Feel About My New Diagnosis

Knowing what’s brewing inside your brain might not change much of your day-to-day, but it can certainly put you at ease from the fear that you are an other – too different to be helped, too odd to ever live a normal life. It shouldn’t be what defines you, but in a world of labels, it’s much more powerful to affix one upon yourself than to have to fight against anything someone might assume upon you.

Read More

The Importance Of Combating PTSD Socially

The Importance Of Combating PTSD Socially

The truth about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is that no definition of it excludes anyone from experiencing it. Even the US Government Department of Veteran Affairs has chosen to simply post the definition directly from the DSM-V without any sort of asterisk or simplification for those not serving in the military. No one is shielded and even indirect trauma (such as simply hearing about a loved one being hurt) can cause its onset.

Read More

What a Flashback Feels Like

What a Flashback Feels Like

Imagine a big storage case, with a ton of clips sitting inside and when you recall one, your brain works like a vending machine to dispense it to your consciousness.

With flashbacks, or in my case, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the vending machine is broken and releases too many clips out at once, or starts dispensing them without someone placing an order, at the wrong time. Anything I have lived through can be easily accessed at any moment. Good or bad memories—the brain is dispensing without regard.

Read More

How to End the Mental Health Stigma Club

How to End the Mental Health Stigma Club

With 6.9% of Americans reporting to have suffered a depressive episode in 2012 alone, we shouldn’t be saying things like, “what now all millennials are depressed” or “you just need to think positively more”. Instead, maybe we can research the problems and find a way to help those who need it, become comfortable receiving help. Not doing so, leaves people waiting longer to get better. And for those of us who do get help, it feels like you’ve joined a club so secret, even its members don’t know who’s in the club with them.

Read More