Welcome to 'Living With Mental Illness'

And you think you're crazy...

Hi there, I'm Vanessa! I'm a 33 year old woman with a long history of mental illness. I suffer from Bipolar disorder, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and of course the severe anxiety associated with both of these.

On top of this I was recently the victim of rape and ended up having a big ol' nervous breakdown in relation to that. I now suffer from Agoraphobia, or 'agoraphobic avoidance' as my doctor calls it - either way it simply means I'm cripplingly afraid to go outside. I haven't left my house by myself for almost exactly a year now.

Now, you might well be thinking "wow - that woman's messed up!" and of course you'd be right, lol. Believe it or not however, I've actually got my mental health pretty much in check lately and with the help of my husband and family I'm on track to discover an even healthier me. Meanwhile, I've got nothing but time on my hands and have been trying to find worthwhile things to do with it.

Paying it forward

I once stumbled on a blog kept by a girl named Katie Quinn that she calls 'BipolarSuccessKQ' detailing her daily struggle with Bipolar disorder. Her blog is a really honest, open account of just what she goes through every day - not in a negative way, but rather a lovely positive look at her personal challenges and achievements.

Katie's blog was a real help to me. It helped me to realize that if there are other people out there just like me, going through just the same issues and experiences, then I'm not that weird after all! In actual fact, it turns out there are so many people just like me I can really consider myself to be quite 'normal' ...how's that for a concept? I can't tell you how much comfort and peace I found as a result of reading Katie's blog, and others like it.

This all got me thinking. If I find this kind of thing helpful, perhaps others do too. I can't ever hope to pay back bloggers like Katie, but I can sure pay it forward. I'm not completely useless as a writer either - this is something I can actually do!

Calling all homies...

To all of my crazy ass kinfolk out there, welcome to my blog. To all of you who are perfectly sane, I welcome you too! I hope to do my small part to increase awareness and dialogue by sharing openly, honestly, and positively - silence about mental illness hurts everyone.

Please feel free to join in the discussion by leaving a comment, and be sure to subscribe for free updates.

Until next time! V.