Topic: depression
In college, I would put on gym clothes, tell my roommates I was going to workout, and sneak to counseling. As soon as I started being more open about my mental health struggles, my life got exponentially better.
By highlighting these tales of human struggle, emotion, and triumph, we hope to share in the wonder of storytelling, and embrace the many ways it can bring us to feel and relate.
Some days, brave means choosing to stay. Even though I’m afraid. Even though I’m hurting.
I have a history of substance abuse and self-injury. My work is all about encountering people who know these struggles intimately as well.
Sunshine days, is what I would call them—when I woke up and there weren't any clouds.
It’s like being stuck in a game of hide and seek, wondering why no one has found you yet—but maybe I was hiding so well that nobody could find me.
I’m not depressed, I’m just tired. Preston isn’t coming back, I know this now. I’ve accepted this, and there’s no basis for any depression to occur within me. Everything is as okay as it will be, and we all just have to keep going. I’m not depressed.
How can I be so certain that taking medication is the best course of action for me? Well, I’ve gone on and off of them for years—causing relapses and hospitalizations. I caused damage by not accepting my illness for what it is—an illness.
Slowly over time though, I began to regain that energy to eat, to shower, to socialize, to be creative.
You don’t have to suffer for your art. You don’t have to prioritize your creativity over your health. You don’t have to destroy your life because of a lie stigma wants you to believe.
Writing has saved my life more than once. It has allowed me the space and room to heal and to learn, and to also let go of the pain and hurt I may have clung to from my past. It doesn’t have to be New York Times worthy either—just something to help loosen the illness’ grip and get the clouds out of the way.
Running my own business and going to therapy are two things that my family never expected from me as a first-generation Ecuadorean-American.
