The word "stigma" defined as a mark of shame or discredit. Stigma, the thing that surrounds all of us regardless of how hard we try to outrun it. When you think about it, there is stigma around most everything. When most people hear about vegans or vegetarians they usually hear stories about said vegans/ vegetarians shaming people for eating animal products or coming out and saying something like "you know what they do to the animal in order to get that right..." however, the Vegans and Vegetarians I know happen to be some of the coolest people around, and they couldn't give less of a crap if you eat meat or not. The same thing goes for invisible, chronic, and mental illnesses.

You cannot tell a person's story just by looking at them. Just because they look happy doesn't mean they really are. Just because they seem bitter doesn't mean they are all of the time, and just because somebody has a certain illness doesn't mean that they want attention, or are vain or whatever other stigma related words society associates with said illness.

Honestly, I really don't know how to say everything I'd like, but this is my way of saying that I didn't chose my story, I didn't wake up one morning and decide that I wanted to be sick. Just like you don't wake up and say to yourself "I think I'm going to have a cold today." Mental Illness has been apart of life, apart of me since i was 8 years old. Not once have I ever felt like having anxiety or depression has made me feel proud. You don't go to parties and brag about how you ate breakfast this morning or how you went out with friends despite not wanting to be seen by anybody that day. You just don't, and until a few years ago, I never wanted people to know when and what I was struggling with.

Now, I know that I cannot change the cards I've been given, the hand I've been dealt. I know that every single human on this earth has a story, has seen both trials and triumphs. i know that nobody, not one person on this Earth is perfect. I've begun to embrace the imperfection of the human race and I'm falling in love with it. I no longer purposely judge somebody, I no longer strive for a perfection that does not exist. I am not perfect, I have bad days, and days where I judge and that's why we all have to work on ourselves because people change people.

Instead of hiding and wallowing on the trials I have been handed I am no longer afraid to say that I am me, I have Depression. I have anxiety. I have an eating disorder, I have OCD, I have struggled with Self- Harm and suicidal thoughts, I have social anxiety, I have been misdiagnosed multiple times. People may get annoyed at this, but my true friends will support me regardless. I have multiple mental illnesses, and they do not define me, and neither do the words and actions that others do and say to me, and I am no longer ashamed of them, for they have made me who I am.