“Always try to look on the bright side of things.”

Share your stigma experience.

I have been officially diagnosed with depression and general anxiety disorder. For so long it went ignored though. The rare times that I ever tried to talk about how I was feeling it all went overlooked because my parents didn’t want to admit that there child had a problem. For so long in my life I was very unstable and trying to get through it all on my own. I was isolating myself, I was always in such a bad mental and physical state. I was rarely ever getting any sleep. I was so lonely and scared. It was clear that things were going to a very bad place and I could not talk about it because I was always hushed when I tried to talk about it. The only reason that I ever even got help was because I landed in an ER for attempting suicide from which I was then transferred to a psychiatric inpatient ward. Finally, it took me to hit rock bottom before I was taken serious.

How did you overcome this experience?

I am now in talk therapy and I am still working my way through medications that will hopefully work for me. To work on my anxiety I will be soon starting a social skills group.

Help others by sharing a brief, positive message.

Always try to look on the bright side of things, it is easy to say but hard to do, I know. Just putting in the effort each day can have a positive influence on your life in the long haul.