Tag: guest blogging

coping with anxiety and depression mental health story

Battling Anxiety & Depression: Abigail’s Story

By Abigail A. | Featured Contributor


Anxiety. One word, four syllables—but carries such a heavy load for millions of people across the globe. Anxiety is defined as β€œan emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes.” As a young girl, I have always known that something didn’t feel quite right when: a) I felt faint whenever it came to public speaking, b) I hated the thought of confrontation, and c) I always felt nervous when it came to being around a group of people, etc. I never knew what it was until 20 something years later when my doctor diagnosed me with generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder, aka GAD & SAD. I finally had a name for what I was feeling all these years as a child/teenager and into adulthood. Numerous factors contributed to me developing anxiety. However, in my early twenties, I battled severe depression, and If I ever lost all hope in life, it was those 5 years because those were my darkest mental days. As the saying goes, I wish that on no one because it was a very scary place to be in.

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outpatient poem by judith evans

Outpatient [a poem]

By Judith Evans | Featured Contributor


Heavy steps through the clinic door.
Scores of faces, waiting room eyes
Follow my feet to the check-in desk.
Finally, a space for my face near the water cooler.

18 minutes of freedom, wishing our dog were here.
I dream, screaming silently till I hear my name.

Dead down the hall: sterile chairs, swabs, lidocaine,
Blood draw, raw nerves, tsk tsk near the back of my head.
Are you in pain? As if I were deaf.
No space for my face any more.

Meanwhile, it’s snowing.
Will this freeze cease?

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then and now poem Afghanistan by Anabel

Then & Now [a poem]

ByΒ Anabel Geneta-RaymundoΒ | Featured Contributor


Author’s Note: This is a poem illustrating the situation of many of our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.

***

Teasing. Playing. Children laughing.
Planting. Caring. Mothers preaching.
Resting. Working. Fathers sweating.
Dreaming. Relishing. People trying.

Growing. Reaching. Afghans thriving.
Living. Loving. β€˜til Taliban’s coming.
Now hiding. Panicking. Borders closing.
Looking. Waiting. Others escaping.

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