I really wish there was a way to make others understand what it is truly like to live daily with a mental illness. Aka: depression, anxiety, bi-polar or as defined by dictionary.com: "Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma." Simply using that word alone "mental illness" conjures up a multitude of thoughts, feelings and stigmas. Coupled with the fact many do not "believe" it is a real illness and think one could "snap out of it" if they wanted too, leaves us suffering....often times doing so alone.
Anyone regardless of race or education level can have a mental illness. Mental illness does not mean you are homeless, crazy, poor or uneducated. There are MANY famous individuals who suffer from depression: Billy Joel, Boris Yeltzen, Princess Diana, and Jim Carrey to name a few.Famous People With Depression Mental illness is prevalent. Roughly 1 in 4 adults have a mental disorder; therefore it is very likely someone you know has a mental illness and you are not aware of it.
I have major depressive and general anxiety disorder. Although I was officially diagnosed in 1996 at the age of 25; it is something I have dealt with my entire life. As I child, I can remember hiding in our basement, behind the furnace wishing I was not alive. By the age of 14, I was having sex with my "boyfriend" as a way to feel important and desperate to feel "loved". I was in relationships from the age of 13 until 38, my self esteem depended on it. I would do anything and everything to "keep" the relationship, whether it was healthy for me or not. My fear of being "alone" outweighed my being happy. Happy? What does that feel like?? Have I ever truly been happy in life?
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