Beyond the diagnosis: Fighting the stigma

And it's hard. Today, as a arrived to my 8 am class, I saw a lot of people in their fanciest dresses, who were graduating today. As I stared at the window, I saw many familiar faces and I knew, this was the moment I've been fearing ever since that day in July 2016, in which I decided to go on a sabatical semester to heal physically and mentally of demons who were eating me alive. I've had a melancholic cape all day, as I remind that decision. I remember feeling like a freaking failure, and not understanding in what moment we had come to this point. I was always the girl who had it all planned, and went according to the plan as it was supposed to. My life never had an inch of doubt in my organism. Never had, and I assumed, never will. I knew exactly my career choices since elementary school. I graduated from high school and I never doubted, neither about the program or the institution. I had everything perfectly timed out, and it never crossed my mind that it could chang...

La sonrisa siempre ha sido uno de mis elementos característicos. Desde que soy pequeña, en la mayoría de fotos, salgo sonriendo. Incluso, mi mamá decía que la única forma de hacer que yo dejara de pelear o me contentara (Porque siempre el genio ha sido cosa seria) era sacando una cámara y pidiéndome una foto. De esa manera, yo dejaría de pelear y sonreiría. Y se me pasaba. Me acuerdo que a mi ex novio lo que más le gustaba de mi, era mi sonrisa. Y a otro, que no sé como clasificar, le encantaba como se me arruga la nariz y se me ponen "chinitos" los ojos cada vez que me salía una carcajada. Viendo una pared de fotos que tengo a mi lado, veo como desde los 2 o 3 años algo en todas las fotos igual: con una sonrisa, los ojos brillantes y los cachetes como dos bolitas rojas (como esos que las señoras que se ponen botox quieren y pagan tanto por tener). Aún así, veo las fotos y me acuerdo de los primeros ataques de pánico que tuve, de la ansiedad que me hacía devorarme las...

Here we are people: 50 pieces,  9 months and almost 9000 visits later. Here we are still, having topics to write about not only for your entertainment but also for my mental health, as I dare to say this is one of the most therapeutic things that have come into my life. And as I stand here, trying to figure out what kind of topic can be magnificent enough to be the owner of the title of my 50th article, I've reached the decision that not topic is important or not important enough to have some words written about it. So, with that in mind, I hope truly that this piece will come as awesome as I hope, as I don't have a clear north about where I'm heading with it. As I think in these less than nine months that have gone by since I posted my first article and decided to open up a mental health awareness blog, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it has felt like 7 lifetimes have come and gone during this time. It has had all the elements of a tv show, or a movie...