Perhaps a good place to start would be to tell you about some of my background.
My childhood was difficult but I always remained positive and even participated in a national debate competition of original oratory with a ten minute speech titled "The Power of Positive Thinking". This event was held in Baltimore, Maryland and though I did not win, it was a wonderful experience.
At age 7 my parents divorced. Just before my 10th birthday, my mother remarried. Two weeks before my 13th birthday, I was diagnosed with AML Childhood Leukemia and underwent a bone marrow transplant. At the time this was considered experimental and controversial.
The cancer treatments I underwent caused late effects of physical limitations. I now have moderate hearing loss in both ears and due to the damage in my cochleae, my ability to balance while walking, climbing stairs and even walking in high heels proves to be difficult.
Of the worst effects of chemotherapy, however, is the life sentence of infertility. There are many dynamics to this condition that have taken place in my life, some joyous and some very disheartening.
DH and I were married in 1998. Since that time my personal mental fluctuations have ranged from hopelessly optimistic to extremely disheartened mixed with bouts of mild clinical depression. I have occasionally taken mild anti-depressants while the short-lived depression passed. Additional areas I have struggled with personally are those of anxiety disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Not all of my posts will give you warm fuzzy feelings by the time you are done reading them. Some posts will, hopefully, inspire you and encourage you in your own personal struggles. Other posts, I hope, will bring you enlightenment and awareness of situations you are not personally familiar with. I believe that balance is very critical in every area of our lives. This blog is no exception. To offset the heavy posts, I plan to post positive posts, coping mechanism posts and humorous posts. I mean, what is the point in coming to a mental awareness blog just to become more depressed from the things you read? It will be highly probable that you know someone who is going through something similar to a post of mine and maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to understand your friend or loved one just a little more.
There are many more components to me than this, but for now, this is a good start. I mean, I don't want to bore you right off the bat because that would just simply stink.
~Elizabeth~
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