121) When you feel you've been turned into a newt
I whispered, “Waking up this morning, I smile.” The corners of my mouth stretched, effortfully, upwards into a smile. The rest of my face did not follow. My heart did not follow. The inauthenticity of my smile was so jarring, I said, out loud, “Yeah, fuck this.”
102) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness: Part 2 - Stigmatization and the disempowerment of the struggling
When you find yourself struggling with mental illness, the “personal responsibility” mantra all-too-often reinforces the already-deeply-internalized sense that there is “something wrong with you”. Society’s stigmatization of those who struggle with mental health, coheres so seamlessly with that “inner critic” that it starts to seem accurate.