Category: Uncategorized
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Blog Post Seven: The Bionic Woman
The most divine woman I know (other than Mariah Carey) plays keyboard on her balcony and lets the squirrels run across the keys. She’s almost 70 but her spirit is ageless; she dances with the twinkling stars and hang glides in warm places above sandy beaches, connected to the universe in a way that transcends…
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Blog Six: Summer of Cicada Love
My boyfriend and I started dating in the season of cicadas, and it was such a joyous time in my life. My mental health wasn’t terrible, I had just connected with a man in a very unexpected way, and I was about to be on summer break after my first few months of teaching during…
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Blog Post Five: Eli’s House Of Pain
“Hello, welcome to Eli’s house of pain, how may I hurt you?” Is the answer my friend Tameka got when she called the hospital to check in on me. Eli (name changed), another patient with a warped sense of humor, answered the ward’s old school “pay phone” that would ring all day, except for when…
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Blog Four: The Lady Who Threw Ice In My Face
One of my most memorable experiences of living in a psych ward was having ice thrown in my face by another patient (an elderly woman with an undisclosed conditional whom we will call “E”). She didn’t like me and it was clear from day one; the other patients knew it and we would joke about…
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Blog Post Three: First Night in the Ward
My first night in the psych ward was one of the hardest. I had a panic attack, questioning my decision to check myself in. My body was shaking. My head was throbbing. I kept repeating over and over again that I would have been better off dead than in this place. I had signed away…
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Blog Post Two: My Glamorous Ambulance Ride
My first ambulance ride felt like a dream, probably because I was high on Xanax and without sleep for days. I’m not going to lie, I was kind of excited to ride in an ambulance from the ER over to the psychiatric hospital. I think I knew it would be my last bit of “fun”…
