I've never really been shy about my mental illness and how it affects me. I have struggled every day since I can remember with anxiety and depression . Anxiety has caused me to avoid a lot of things and people in my life . I avoid important phone calls, important conversations with peers and managers , doctors, friends etc ... I can't stand being the centre of attention or being put on the spot. My mind races, thoughts race and I normally can't focus or organize my thoughts because the fear is always there. I'm afraid of failure l, people talking about me negatively and more. and this led to a lot of depressed thoughts and feelings .

Aren't a lot of these feelings and emotions normal for most people you may ask? Now that's where the stigma lies. I may seem fine . I may seem happy, and i may seem perfectly calm when i make social contact. But the truth is, it takes all my energy to get out of bed , force my thoughts to be positive , force myself to talk to humans without tripping up or not making sense.

Mental health has been an important part of my life since before I can remember. growing up, I always found other people's needs to be more important than my own . I would put my own mental health on the backburner because I knew a lot of people close to me suffering worse than I was. I didn't know how to help myself, so helping others was the best thing for me. And to this day, helping those who need it would always make me feel like I had a purpose.