Confession
I grew up with an unhealthy view of mental illness. I was told that people on ADHD medications were usually just victims of poor parenting and medical overreach. I was taught that most people on antidepressants didn’t actually need them. I got the message that being on psychotropic medications was a weakness, something shameful. I remember reading in teen magazines about things like eating disorders and self-mutilation. I remember when I started seeing things like that in kids my age. I remember when my best friend in Junior High ripped out most of her hair and tried to slit her wrists. I stopped talking to her. I didn’t know what to do, what to say. I remember the first time I contemplated suicide. I was 12. I remember feeling like no one on earth loved me. I can look back now, having learned and knowing better, and I can see the disordered thinking, the self-isolation, the rumination, the extreme anxiety. I remember lying in bed crying so hard that my lips would tingle and I’d fe