Today We Are Free

My friends. My brothers. My sisters. Today is the day we all come together in remembrance of a mental disorder that we all have stumbled upon. Today is an awareness to people who have yet to understand who we really are.

But who are we?

Are we a menace to society?

Or are we an aid to society?

That’s the question I sometimes ask myself. And the hardest philosophical question a bipolar person may ask themselves is: What is the meaning of life?

And the more we ask ourselves that question the more meaningless life becomes. That’s why some of our brothers have killed themselves by overdosing on pills. That’s why some of our sisters have killed themselves by hanging themselves inside their bedrooms. And I can’t blame them or call them selfish for killing themselves because these are the soldiers who were killed in the war. These are…

Everyone’s gender is different, and that’s great. But what do you transition to, when everybody is following a different path? For Indi, the lack of examples has meant becoming vis own inspiration to follow. 

Drawing Inspiration

The non-binary community does a great job of being inclusive and supportive for all comers. Questioning folks are told there’s no wrong way to express their gender, everyone’s gender is different, everyone’s path is different. This is all true, and this is all valuable, but it can also be pretty overwhelming. In my own years-long gender journey, I’ve looked and looked, trying to find some clear, well-trodden path to follow, and all I see are a bunch of people going off in their own directions. And none of them look like me.

One thing that’s been clear to me as I’ve tried to work out my identity (gender and otherwise) is the value of examples…

It is hard to find people in this world who will try to understand just what PTSD is, let alone how it impacts your life.  Even people who love you are apt to know more about the president’s dog than PTSD.  Even if they read up on it, they may not understand it in an empathetic way since it is not something they experience.  There are days that I feel more understood by the cat than a dear friend.  (Of course, this is anthropomorphism — but heh, whatever gets me through the day… 😉 ) But, here at WordPress, I can find others who walk my path — who “get it” — because they are walking it too.  It may not be PTSD, but  instead depression, anxiety, OCD, DID, bi-polar disorder, or any number of mental and emotional health challenges.   But, we can understand each other because we have…