[This post may be triggering for some readers. YMMV.] It seems the media has been rife with stories of mothers who have harmed or fatally wounded their children this week. The social media narrative surrounding it all is about to make me crazy. A mom in Texas shot her daughters during a “family meeting” because…
postpartum depression
Why I Climb | Climb Out of the Darkness 2016
We’re FOUR DAYS AWAY from the 2016 Climb Out of the Darkness. Four days away from the third year in a row where I’ll join postpartum depression survivors, locally and globally, to raise awareness of an illness which will affect 1 in 7 moms. If you want to know why I climb, there’s little else…
Depression Is…
There’s a Facebook trending news story that was cached in my list that is absolutely breaking my heart. A mother in North Carolina reached the point of taking her own life and her children’s as well. The comments (I know, I know…don’t read them) are breaking my heart. On the one hand we have dozens and…
Doing Hard Things
I have always felt that the phrase “we can do hard things” is a little…cheesy. True, but with a side of gouda. But today I did a hard thing that I didn’t even know was going to be a hard thing until I was staring down the barrel of a panic attack as the situation…
#MeditateOnThis: Why Talking About Medication Matters
I was going to come here today and whine all about the migraine I had yesterday and how now I have a migraine hangover and/or I slept really, really wrong and/or going on a Twitter rampage last night somehow tweaked my neck. There is for real a lot of whining and I’m not saying that…
Climb Out of the Darkness 2015
Last year, on the longest day of the year, I climbed a mountain. Stone Mountain, to be exact. It wasn’t Everest, but it felt like it. I thought about quitting half way up. I wanted to turn around and walk back down the mountain, content to have gone as far as I could, not caring…
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: Climb Out of the Darkness
I will never forget the relief I felt the first time someone looked at me and said “Miranda, you’re depressed. This is depression.” In that moment, my moods, the sadness, anger, rage, all of it, had a place. Slowly, with therapy, dedication to getting better, and through the twists of fate which started me on…
Climb Out Of the Darkness 2014
It’s time to Climb Out of the Darkness in Atlanta, y’all. 1 in 7 mothers will suffer from a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. And that’s only the number of moms who actually seek help. Because of the stigma associated with mental illness, and with postpartum mental illness in particular, and because of the lack…
Breastfeeding and Anxiety
Thank you for all of the support last week when I wrote about finally making the call to a therapist for help in dealing with my anxiety. It was a really tough call to make, but I know it was the right call. I think the right calls are usually the tough ones, you know?…
I Am A Face Of Mental Illness
I have a personal rule against watching the news. It fuels my anxiety and since I don’t actually like feeling anxious I avoid all things which cause me anxiety whenever I reasonably can. So the news is on my Do Not Watch list. It’s one of the only things on that list, because hey, watching TV…