How are you feeling today? 

1. Today has been a good day. The kids have behaved for the most part. I try to do busy activities to make the day more fun for everyone. It also gives me a nice distraction. We made Kool-Aid Play Doh. 

Do you ever feel that feeling of anxiety, nerves and sad thoughts affect your life? 

2. The feelings of anxiety and sad thoughts do not affect my life often. It has taken years to get to this point. Most of my days are good days with an occasional negative thought creeping its way in every so often. 

Have you ever experienced lower than usual interest in activities? 

3. Yes, I do experience lower than usual interest in activities. I actually haven’t even linked that to depression/anxiety until now. Some days/weeks it is just due to being worn out with no energy to do anything. 

 
Have you ever experienced an anxiety attack or panic attack? 

4. No, I have never experienced and anxiety/panic attack. They sound rough and I hope to never experience it.  

 
Does your anxiety around others bring you discomfort? 

5. I absolutely have anxiety discomfort around others. This is what affects me the most. My childhood was mostly pain that left me with social anxiety. I am most comfortable around small crowds without a lot of noise.  

 
Have you ever experienced a terrible event that impacted your mental health? If comfortable, can you share? 

6. Yes, I have experienced an event that changed me forever. I was sexually abused for the first time at the age of about 4 or 5. Then again from the age of 11-16. This has affected my sex life and has made me very “shy” when it comes to sex. I am uncomfortable with most intimacy. 

The interview above gives good insight into the mind of a person with a mental illness. Often in life people are uncomfortable sharing their feelings of anxiety and depression. The person I interviewed was kind enough to share their experiences. The person remains anonymous, just like all the people suffering with depression and anxiety behind closed doors.  

Please do not let depression and anxiety take over your life. Your life is by your own design and live life according to this! I want to inspire people to see those feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety, the highs and lows is nothing to be ashamed of! We are all trying to live every day the best we can and this is very admirable!