Blog for Mental Health 2013

I’m taking the Pledge!

I pledge my commitment to the Blog For Mental Health 2013 Project. I will blog about mental health topics not only for myself, but for others. By displaying this badge, I show my pride, dedication, and acceptance for mental health. I use this to promote mental health education in the struggle to erase stigma.

I was pledged by . I was getting very caught up in life and not blogging for a little while so I had completely forgot to do this when she pledged me. But I’m so excited to be a part of this. I want to thank for doing this in the first place.

Now, mental health issues pretty much run rampant on my mother’s side, and my dad of course has a few on his side as well, but those are all “environmental”. Mental issues on my mother’s side vary from depression to anxiety to bipolar. I have been “clinically” depressed since about 6th grade. But my anxiety has been around for as long as I can remember. It started out as stage fright and turned into this: Clinically depressed, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, OCD and Emotional Disorder. My symptoms range from breaking out in hives, increased heart rate, unexplained pains, heart attack like symptoms, emotional “breakdowns”, and full-fledged panic attacks. I also experience very bad claustrophobia as a result of all these disorders. While my depression is under control, I’ve discovered what a huge role anxiety played in that depression and now I feel like I’m sort of back at square one.

I’m committed to helping as many people as possible identify their symptoms and therefore their problem, help them cope and live with it in a healthy way and learn that having a mental disorder does not mean you can’t be a normal part of society. You make your disorder what it is. You are not a freak and are most certainly not alone. We’re just the more extreme side of what every person deals with every day.

I’m also writing my first novel about two teens who deal with depression, anxiety and bipolar. With a positive attitude and help, one lives a normal life. The other denies help and does not understand what he’s going through and refuses to admit he has a problem and ends up on the negative end. I’ve seen family and friends come out stronger from their mental disorders and I’ve seen others live terrible lives. We must educate others to help themselves or others who live with these problems and end the stigma associated with mental disorders.

Now, to pledge 5 others! I’ve decided to follow and pledge blogs I’m not yet familiar with.

1. http://depressionhopelife.wordpress.com/

2. http://alwaysfallingslowly.wordpress.com/

3. http://aysmni.wordpress.com/

4. http://kintsukuroi.wordpress.com/

5. http://whisperingshadowsbook.wordpress.com/

Don’t forget that when you take this pledge to visit and leave a comment with the link to your pledge so that you can be included on the blogroll as well!