by Sinclair Ceasar
You wake up. You don’t want to get out of bed because your thoughts won’t let you. Later you’ll want to explain this paralysis, but you’re ashamed of it, and you don’t quite understand it. You feel powerless. Your choices are to either start your day and face scary people and scary things, or to stay in bed forever. I hate waking up to this.
by Carly Masiroff
This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story. You are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. – Perks of Being a Wallflower
I have always had an insatiable need to help others. When I saw a problem, I tried everything in my willpower to fix it, even if it ended up with unseen consequences. I needed to make others happy. I never knew why, I just knew I had to do it. To any ordinary person, even my closest friends and family, I seem to be tenaciously facing the world by day, while hiding a dark secret by night. Continue reading
by Jessica Fantini
Since my post last year a few things have changed. Most notably I worked with my therapist to be approved for an emotional support animal and adopted a nine-year-old female pitbull mix named Savannah in November. Then I switched jobs and moved back to New England in January. This has had several impacts on my life and my ability to take care of my mental health.
by Sarah Merriman
Last year I told a story of how I was committed to speaking my truth as an outside contribution to the Committed series. Since that day, so much has changed and at the same time, so little.
I continue to adjust medications, find comfort in a variety of forms of self-care, struggle, and live. Continue reading
by Paul Porter
I now understood that real secrets were lonely. They planted themselves inside of you and expanded, until you felt like that was all you were-a lonely little secret, isolated in your experiences.
Yvonne Woon
This post is dedicated to:
Kristen Abell, whose beautiful Pecha Kucha continues to inspire professionals in our field, and empowered me to write and share these thoughts: I admire you.
The allies of the mental health community—family and loved ones who help ease the feelings of pain, fear, frustration, and anxiety associated with mental illness: I salute you.
The 61.5 million Americans who experience some form of mental illness in a given year: I’m one of you.
by Amy Corron
Being very type-A, hyper organized, and a striving perfectionist, it has been my lot in life to be a little more, and sometimes a lot more, stressed than those around me. The right set of environmental factors collided in college and I developed Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorders. There were a few trauma and crisis moments and times I did not know how I was going to make it through. But after each breath came the next breath, and through counseling and learning more about myself I learned not only how to cope with anxiety, but also how to thrive. In an effort to stomp out stigma and share what mental illness looks like, I am sharing a video of photos of myself through the time span of my experience with anxiety. Mental illness looks like me – a person with a full life who tries to live positively and authenticity at work and at home with family and friends. Continue reading
by Annie Greaney
Newton’s first law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. Pretty simple concept when you think about it. For example, a ball will be stationary until a force is applied, and then it will continue to move until a force stops it.But what if you imagined your mind and thoughts as a ball, how easy can you apply force to stop or start a thought? I would guess for some it would be quite simple, as simple as pushing a ball. For others, take myself, it is hard to control the start or stop forces that trigger my mind to think. Sometimes, the forces are not even real. So how can you stop a force you did not even see coming? Continue reading
by Melissa Boles
When my depression diagnosis came through at fifteen, I thought the doctor was wrong. I was upset that a doctor would think I could have something so detrimental – I was just a normal teenager. Then the doctor started to go through the symptoms. I had all of them. Every single one. Continue reading
by Dan McDowell
Today’s #SACommits entry is a video by Dan McDowell, talking about his anxiety and experience with medication. Continue reading
by Katie Ericson
This isn’t something I’ve talked about to many people, but I feel that it’s a story to be told. If there’s one other person out there that can maybe relate to this just a little, then it’s worth it. It is because of the #SACommits community that I feel comfortable enough to become vulnerable in a way I haven’t before. I am inspired and moved by all of those who have shared stories, thoughts, resources, and encouragement to the community that is student affairs and higher education. And I am more than ready to stomp out the stigma. Continue reading