“It allows me to navigate through the world with more empathy”
I have a pre-existing mental health condition that some people have attached a stigma to and thought that maybe I wouldn’t succeed as much as I have. I now am a graduate student at UCLA and I have an awesome job and an amazing partner. I just think that in our society that really profits off of our self-doubt just being who we are is the most important form of rebellion and just being out there in the world. I think that is really important.
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 17 and I suffer from bouts of really debilitating anxiety and panic. I’m currently getting out of something right now. I just try to know, that it just makes me stronger and it allows me to navigate through the world with more empathy.
I have a little monkey that a friend of mine, when I was in a psychological treatment program, gave to me. I don’t look at it very often. It does have very big eyes and it is very small and it makes me laugh when I see it. It’s cute.
When I was little I had a little lamb I called Lamby and I remember my mom gave it away to some other kid when she thought I was too old for it and I was so devastated she got rid of it and she went back and got it for me. I had Lamby and Oatmeal. Oatmeal was a bear and they were a little pair and I felt sad for Oatmeal when the lamb was’t there anymore. I was very upset and I had her go and get it back.
Then I remember feeling remorse that she got it back because I felt maybe that child wasn’t as privileged as me to have these animals and now I just took it back from them. I remember feeling that sadness for it.