Erik DaRosa

For as long as I can remember, I have been “okay” according to society's definition. Yet, I’ve experienced everything from the fear of sleeping as a young child, to the onset of terrifying obsessive thoughts as an adolescent, to the ever-worsening panic attacks and paralyzing anxiety throughout my high school and college years. This all culminated in two debilitating dissociative episodes as an adult. To this day, I have no recollection of two lost weekends – the first in summer 2004 and the second in fall 2006. My most recent episode occurred in October of 2021 and resulted in a renewed healing journey consisting of both Western and Eastern treatment modalities.

For some reason, I did everything to hide my "not okay-ness" from the world. After years of therapy and a highly effective regime of medications, there were still times that I chose the path of least resistance, the same path that far too many people choose: to suffer in silence. For decades I outwardly displayed a facade, that of a usually smiling, highly functioning, type-A successful overachiever. I had, subconsciously or not, chosen to accept society's stigma rather than embrace my own vulnerability.

Stigma says we shouldn't talk openly about these things. I say we should! Stigma also says we shouldn't stand high upon the mountain top, vulnerable and transparent, for the entire world to see. I say we must!

Together, let's work to break the stigma of mental illness and remind one another that it's perfectly okay to not always be okay. Collectively, and with a bit of patience, we'll get through this, I promise.