I became a member of Odyssey all but recently, and once I joined, I had to decide what to write about. Sure I can always fall back on my sense of humor along with funny stories about my life. But while they bring laughs and are something I certainly want to do in the future, they don't accomplish what I want to do now, which is to help people. I'm a psychology major at Stonehill College and, one day, I want to work in a clinic, helping people through mental trauma and issues. But there have always been those who don't trust articles written by people that say "I can help" while not explaining why they can help. Sure, they may be studying in the psych field, or even have a degree in it. But unless they have had an experience with troubled mental health, it may seem less genuine to the person reading, not that the writer is wrong. So before I start writing articles about ways to help mental illnesses, I may as well first show that I have a personal connection to it.

I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders. While being diagnosed in my junior year of high school, I have felt the symptoms of anxiety and panic since about 5th grade. At first, it dealt with food, since I have many food allergies and was terrified of an allergic reaction in public. But slowly, anxiety and panic took over my life to the point where the smallest things, not even related to the beginning cause could make a panic attack appear. I didn't want to go to school nor did I want to be with friends or family. I wanted to be alone. This hurt my school life, social life, and life in general. Panic attacks became a usual event for me. The room would get all hot, my pulse would rise considerably, and I felt as though I was going to throw up. These attacks began to become an eveyr day occurrence. I lost a ton of weight and became basically a skeleton (I mean, I'm still a bean pole, but it was so much worse). And that's when the depression set in. However, through the help of people who cared about me, I came to the conclusion that this should not control me. From then on, I've been better, having some flare ups here and there. But, as people with struggles like this know, anxiety, depression, panic, and other things can come back just as easily as they can go away.

I've always been open about this, because I have seen that once one person brings it up, many others come out of the woodworks. Since, at least to me, it's been helpful to know that you're not alone and that someone who has had similar issues wants to help. Another reason for me being open with my struggle of depression and anxiety is because I don't see the problem with it. Once we take away the stigma of things such as depression or anxiety making us weak, we see that mental health truthfully is no more different than that of physical health. Like the common cold, mental health problems can happen to anyone and no one sees someone else as weaker for having a cold.

What I am trying to say is that I understand, in some way, what many of you may be going through. And with this platform, I want to help in whatever way I can.