“You can do anything for 10 seconds.”

Share your stigma experience.

I was diagnosed manic depressive at 15 years old (I am 28 now). I was re-diagnosed as bipolar 2 in 2013. I had seen therapists over the years only when I was really really suffering, and my last time in a therapy setting was 2013. I am unmedicated and as a Psychology Masters student I pride myself in my ability to manage my own mental health (although it takes A LOT of work to do so, I mean so much mindfulness).
I began my internship as a School Psychologist this august 2018 and all of the tools I have learned and used since 2013 stopped working. My life is changing, my career is starting and I cannot mindfully control and predict my emotions when I have never experienced life in this stage before. I began crumbling quickly and I have been unable to get my footing. My psychosis is back and the depression is crippling. I am at a loss, but i was so scared admitting that I needed help again. Like I said I am such a proud person and I thought that my tools would be generalizable to the world, not even realizing I created them around the life of a college student, and not for the real world.

How did you overcome this experience?

I still haven’t completely overcome it. This is something I will attempt to balance my entire life. One day I was so depressive that at work I started searching for anything on spotify to listen to to make the pain go away, and distract me as I attempted to work. I came across the Hilarious World of Depression, and I laughed for the first time that week. I sought out help and I will begin therapy again this week, because I was able to hear so many strong people and their journey about getting help.

Help others by sharing a brief, positive message.

You can do anything for 10 seconds. Just count to 10, after you get to 10 you begin again. -The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt