This just seemed so … on target. I don’t have any tattoos. but if I got one, this would be appropriate.

I dealt with depression, panic attacks, PTSD, and agoraphobia in the early 90’s. It is not easy. It is not accepted. It was not understood. It was not covered by SSI. They did not have Oprah shows about it back then. And they didn’t have medicine for it then.

By the time Zoloft came out I had been through hell.

Let me also say that depression is not other mental illnesses. It is not BPD or SAD or LSMFT or any other combination of letters.

Oh, and heartbreak and grief. It is not heartbreak or grief. I’ve had those too. (Writing helps that 😉 )

But people with no degrees, no time or no discernment have been known to misdiagnose folks.

Depression was far, far different. Like the young lady in this post eloquently describes. FAR different.

Personally, I do ellipses … but I like the idea of a semi-colon.

hpwritesblogs

FullSizeRender-1FullSizeRender Today I went to a tattoo artist, and for $60 I let a man with a giant Jesus-tattoo on his head ink a semi-colon onto my wrist where it will stay until the day I die. By now, enough people have started asking questions that it made sense for me to start talking, and talking about things that aren’t particularly easy.

We’ll start here: a semi-colon is a place in a sentence where the author has the decision to stop with a period, but chooses not to. A semi-colon is a reminder to pause and then keep going. 

In April I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. By the beginning of May I was popping anti-depressents every morning with a breakfast I could barely stomach. In June, I had to leave a job I’d wanted since I first set foot on this campus as an incoming freshmen because of my mental…

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