My name is Emily, I'm 16 and I am considered "mentally ill". For the last few years, I have been dealing
with sever depression and anxiety. I was crippled by the depression; it got so bad that I could barely get dressed in
the morning.
To deal with the pain I was feeling I began to cut myself when I was about 12 or 13. Around that time I also
got into drugs for a lot of the same reasons. In January of 2006 my reckless actins landed me in a mental hospital
for 3 weeks. I am in the partial hospitalization program untill the end of February.
My point here is, while I was in the hospital, I met a lot of amazing individuals. All of them had similar problems.
Most of them came from similar home lives and had similar pasts. Sometimes with depression or other mental illness, one feels
like a "freak" or alone. In the last few weeks, I have learned that these mental illnesses are not uncommon, they
are just taboo to talk about. Most people are ashamed of their problems, and they get swept under the rug; the teens I met
ranging from ages 12 to 17 knew they had nothing to hide. I began to befriend some of these people and learn their stories.
I became enlightened and was glad they felt comfortable enough to open up to me.
Mental illness brings about a lot of pain, not just for you, but for the people around you as well.
