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Surviving and Thriving as a Caregiver

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by Mallory Bower

In the beginning, things were just a little off.  If you weren’t close, you wouldn’t have noticed. My intuition was in overdrive and my gut was screaming, “this isn’t right!” But still, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

First, there were the tall tales that I so badly wanted to believe. Elaborate stories, spun carefully with conviction and woven with lies.

Then there were bouts of hyper, all-in mania that made my head spin trying to follow along and make sense of it all. Hundreds of projects started, but never finished. Nuts and bolts; screws loose.

Next came the mood swings, broken glass, unbridled anger. Followed by self-loathing and isolation.

And then, quiet. The calm before the storm that would brew again without warning.

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mindFULL

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by Lisa Endersby

I don’t measure my weight on a scale much anymore. I measure my heaviness by my mood. For as long as I can remember, anxiety has been an old friend, a constant companion, and my nemesis. It’s fascinating and frightening to watch other people be seemingly ‘normal’ as they go about their lives, so quick to recover from what you know isn’t anywhere near the end of the world, and so steady in their good moods.

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The Other Side

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by Sean Grube

As many of you may know, my lovely partner, Kristen Abell, is a persistent advocate for mental health in the student affairs field. She’s extensively documented her own battles with depression. I’ve been asked to talk about what it’s like to be a partner (hopefully a supportive one) to someone that lives with depression.

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Misdiagnosed

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by Stacy Oliver

Blinking slowly, I regained consciousness on the floor of the bathroom in my Residence Director apartment. I remembered walking in there minutes before and leaning against the counter, hoping to ease the pain that was gripping my ribs like a belt cinching tighter and tighter as my breath became shallower.

It didn’t make sense. These were the symptoms my doctor diagnosed as gallbladder attacks, culminating in my having my gallbladder removed. Was there such a thing as phantom gallbladder attacks? It seemed unlikely, but there also wasn’t any other plausible explanation as far as I was concerned. Continue reading →

Stomping Out Stigma

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by Kristen Abell

I started writing about my struggles with depression on my personal blog in 2007, but it was several more years before I outed myself to the student affairs community. I can still remember the churning in my stomach and the cold sweat I broke into after hitting “publish” on my post. I can remember the overwhelmingly positive response I got from those who commented, shared, or emailed me privately to thank me for the post. I also remember the silence from people I had hoped and thought would respond – in a way, that spoke louder than the comments from those that supported me.

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