Here is the winning essay from a writing contest aimed at lifting the stigma of mental illness, by an Irish 27 year old named Fiona Bradshaw. Following is just a taste:
Most people get up, go to work, go out and play and, in general, live their lives from day to day. Bills, mortgages, kids, jobs -- these are day to day concerns. The 'normals', as I call them, don't consider their mental health, or at least they don't need to -- why would they? I know that when I was well, I didn't consider mine. Not until its fragility was unveiled to me.
I'm not sure if I always had agoraphobia and panic attacks but since my mental health failed me, my world has shrunk epically and I am now tethered to home. I have, for all intents and purposes, become a prisoner in my own life.
But at least I have the best family and friends in the world to count on. Still, it took me a long time to find the confidence to explain everything to them. It also took me a long time to discover what I was going to have to explain.
Many books and many therapists later I think I have a handle on what handles me. I know what happens to me when I panic, I know why it happens. Still, when it creeps over me I always seem to fold because it is so brutally terrifying.
PANIC! wishes you well, Fiona!
