by Lisa in North Carolina
I remember very well the reason I started falling apart. I was in nursing school, working two part-time jobs, and my mother was very sick. Within a matter of 24 hours, I lost my mom, and I got kicked out of nursing school because of low grades. After these losses, I became very depressed, suicidal, and homicidal.
by Madison in Pennsylvania
Because of my mental illness, I had to leave my profession in social work and claim disability. It put a strain on my marriage, resulting in a divorce and emotional strain on my parents and brother.
by Lilian in Florida
When I look back I can now see that I started to show symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) when I was ten years old. My symptoms did not become obvious to the people around me until I was 14 and then even longer before I was misdiagnosed at the age of seventeen.
My mounting unstable emotional outbursts were what seemed to draw people's attention the most. I was incapable of controlling my ever increasing emotional states that would come and go at the drop of a hat. The yelling, screaming, crying, and throwing things for the smallest of infractions. Things that would not upset most other people, I went into hysterics over.
by Bonnie in New Jersey
I am 32-years-old and am working towards recovery. I have not always believed in recovery. It has been a journey and to me, recovery is a journey with its ups and downs, as is life.
I have been battling emotional challenges for the better part of my life. My earliest diagnosis was ADHD at the age of 4, along with a learning disability. I learned as a young child how to combat the illness and continue to try and try. I was quite successful in school. I was taught never to give up and to fight against the system, especially when my parents and I would be told that I wouldn't be able to do something because of my disability. I learned to ask questions when I had questions, and I was a very successful student.
Along my college path, I ran into many stumbling blocks where I met up with the notion of having to take psychotropic medication. I was never specifically against it although I must say that there were medications that I was adamant against taking; I didn't know why, but in later years, I learned that when I would have a gut instinct about something, I had to learn to listen to myself. If I did not listen, I would pay the price.
