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Depression Times Two and Why
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I want to share just a snippet into my own journey to understanding my own mental health needs.
I grew up without often feeling the sting of sadness. There were moments, but I learned young how to govern my feelings. Some feelings were not really welcome. As an empath, feelings were always really big, but being happy was my default emotion. I enjoyed being happy because a smile made others smile. A joke made people laugh. I made fun of myself and was silly to see people’s faces and light shift into a more joyful place.
As a survivor of trauma, anxiety was a normal way of life for me starting at age 13. It was a way to cope with the stress of not being able to process things a child’s mind could not understand.
I went to college right after I turned 18 and loved the freedom of friendships and play for the first time. It was a church school and I was entirely too well behaved, but it was still a wonderful time; full of great memories with a lot of boys and girls who were easy to be with. We all seemed to have common goals for our lives.
At the end of my freshman year, I met the man I would marry. I had dated A LOT and had just gotten dumped by a guy who had gone back to a previous girlfriend. It was not awesome. No matter, I met Him. He was charming, smart, bubbly, and just as…
