No Kidding, Me Too!!

As I was working at the yoga studio this evening, I found a card on the front desk publicizing a website called No Kidding, Me Too!  Its mission is basically this: 

No Kidding, Me Too! is an organization whose purpose is to remove the stigma attached to brain dis-ease through education and the breaking down of societal barriers. Our goal is to empower those with brain dis-ease to admit their illness, seek treatment, and become even greater members of society.

I am a fulllll advocate of this!

I was immediately drawn to the cause.  I am someone who has been surrounded by mental illness my entire life and, who admittedly, suffers herself.  I grew up with most of my family suffering from some kind of mental illness as depression runs in my family.  I have struggled in and out of depression for years since my parent's divorce.   As I have grown up, I have had this need to understand human beings, especially the brain.  I have studied theatre and psychology in conjunction my whole life as I believe art mirrors life and life mirrors art.  I spent the past year and a half of my life working at a Drop-in center helping at risk and homeless youth.  These youth were not only struggling with either being homeless or having parents with mental illness who could not take care of them, but they were struggling with mental illness themselves and were using anything and everything to diminish the pain they felt on a continual basis.  While working at this Drop-in center, I also at the time was dating a male who was coming to terms that he was bipolar.  We are no longer together, but watching the ups and downs he went through every single day broke my heart. Mental illness is everywhere and I always feel like I am hiding something by not saying, "hey I have dealt with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, an eating disorder, and add a little OCD on the side."  I'm a full bag of fun let me tell you.  I wish we were all more open about the struggles we are going through or have had to go through in the past.  It makes me feel more connected to human kind when people tell me the struggles they have been through because suddenly I don't feel so alone (or ashamed of the things I have struggled with and continue to).  I promise to be more honest and open here and in my life because I'm tired of hiding behind the mask of a "normal" human being (whatever that means).