Tag Archives: i have

I Have ADD

Amelia McDonell-ParryFebruary 9, 2012 //
Therapy Boundaries
How much should you know about your psychologist's personal life? Read More »
Explaining Depression
What does it really feel like to suffer from depression? Read More »
Find A Therapist
therapist photo
Seven tips for finding the right therapist. Read More »

When I first started taking Adderall, it wasn’t prescribed to me — it was my boyfriend’s. It was 2006, and I had a fun but creatively unfulfilling job at a men’s magazine. On the weekends, I was determined to grow a freelance career that, god willing, would allow me to quit. Freelance writing, especially when you’re starting out, involves a lot of pitching, in particular pitching editors who don’t know you. It’s a lot of coming up with ideas, proposing those ideas, and waiting, hoping and praying, that someone, anyone bites and is willing to pay you a decent sum to write it. To be a successful freelancer writer, you have to be extremely motivated and focused.

I had the motivation. But focus was out of my grasp. I felt stuck literally and mentally. And being stuck make me anxious. Keep reading »

I Have HIV

AnonymousDecember 1, 2010 //

Kate is just like you or me: She is 29, lives in Ohio with her husband, holds down a job, and is the mother of a 3-year-old son. But for the past few years Kate has been living with the knowledge she is HIV+.

Kate blogs about HIV+ life at A Girl Like Me, a group blog written by women who are living with HIV. The blog is a program by The Well Project, a non-profit started by a woman living with HIV/AIDS which focuses on the needs of women living with the virus.

On the occasion of World AIDS Day 2010, Kate has generously opened up to The Frisky about how she contracted HIV, what her day-to-day symptoms are like, and how others treat her when they learn she is positive. — Jessica Wakeman Keep reading »

I Have TMJD

Alexa JohnsonOctober 18, 2010 //

When I was a kid, I never chewed gum. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see who could blow the biggest bubble with my friends. I loved all the fruity flavors gum had to offer; it was a tropical fruit world that I longed to be a part of. No, I didn’t chew gum for the same reason I didn’t eat whole apples—mine were always sliced. For as long as I can remember, eating simple things like this hurt my jaw. It clicked and cracked and was painful to the point where I didn’t want to eat. To this day, the idea of opening my mouth wide and wrapping my mouth around a big, red, juicy apple gives me pain. Keep reading »

I Have A Rare Autoimmune Disease

Wendy ShankerSeptember 9, 2010 //

Don’t even bother trying to pronounce what I have, because I can barely get it right and I’ve had it for 11 years. It’s called Wegener’s Granulomatosis, a rare autoimmune vascular disease that primarily eats up your sinuses, lungs and kidneys. It can also chew through your joints, ears, eyes, skin and internal organs as it pleases. It’s in the same autoimmune family as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, except invitees at this family reunion might seem kind of bummed when you and your unpronounceable German disease show up at the door. When I was first diagnosed, I said, “Weg-huh-nuh-what? That sounds like a Nazi disease or something!” Turns out, Friedrich Wegener was a Nazi doctor who named my form of vasculitis back in the 1930s. He wasn’t even a Nazi by force. He was a Nazi for fun. Wanted for war crimes and everything. No wonder there’s a movement afoot to change the name to something zippy like “ANCA-associated granulomatous vasculitis.” But let’s just go with WG for now. Keep reading »

I Have Lupus

Erin FennellAugust 25, 2010 //

The first time I noticed my fingers changing colors was my junior year of high school. It was January and I had just finished my last final for the semester. I was outside with a group of my friends waiting for my dad to pick me up when I looked down at my hands. They were pale white and they hurt, bad. They felt like they were burning, but burning like when you touch something that’s too cold. I tried to blow on them to warm them up because they felt like ice. Then they began to turn blue. As the pain continued, my dad told me with a straight face not to worry, that my fingers were just falling off. Then he had to calm me down after I convinced myself I had frost bite and was going to be fingerless. Keep reading »

I Have Migraines

Brittany ShootJuly 28, 2010 //

Last year, I was on vacation in Berlin when I woke up at 4 a.m., unable to move. Searing pain began at the crown of my head and extended well below my shoulders, causing my head, face, and neck to clench up and spasm whether I tried to move or lie perfectly still. The most extreme combination of tension and aching I’d ever experienced, I managed to nudge my partner awake and whispered, “Drugs. Find a doctor.” We had to be on a plane in seven hours, and I was in the midst of a horrific migraine. Keep reading »

I Have Crohn’s Disease

Alison FellerJuly 21, 2010 //

I’ll never forget the vacation my family took when I was 7 years old. It was the summer before I entered second grade and we drove up to Vermont for a week of hiking, biking and staying up past our bedtimes.

But the trip wasn’t so much fun for me. I had no energy to hike and was tired all the time. At the end of the week, during a stop at Attitash Mountain in New Hampshire, I began having such intense, mind-numbing stomach aches that I couldn’t even stand up. I threw up all over the scenic Cog Railway and my parents immediately got me into the car and took me to the hospital. I was running a fever and my weight had dropped to 37 pounds from my usual 50. Keep reading »

I Have OCD

Abby SherJuly 14, 2010 //

I have five fingers on each hand. I use them like this: I hold up my thumb and whisper, “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.” Then my pointer finger. “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.” Then my middle finger, my ring finger, and my pinky. I give small kisses in between each “Thank You.” I do this five times for a total of 125 “Thank Yous.” Then I say “Thank You” for specific things, like how bright the sun is today or how soothing it is to feel my wet hair on my back. These I repeat just once for each finger. Then I thank G-d for his infinite wisdom, infinite grace, infinite compassion, forgiveness, and honesty—one accolade for each finger.

This is the prayer I say when I get on the subway in the morning. I have to say it.

“Or else…?” asks my therapist. Keep reading »

I Have Borderline Personality Disorder

Merri Lisa JohnsonJune 30, 2010 //

It’s hard, even now, to write the words, “I have Borderline Personality Disorder.” I hesitate before making the statement for so many reasons. The condition is a big mish-mosh of types of people and problems. You have to meet five out of nine criteria listed in the DSM-IV-TR for Borderline Personality Disorder, which means there are oodles of different combinations of said criteria and therefore so many different kinds of borderlines. I notice myself wanting to say I’m not like other borderlines, but isn’t that just like a borderline to present myself as special and unique and less scary/dangerous/weird/sick/unappealing than other borderlines? Still, one borderline is not like another. There are subtypes—discouraged borderline, self-destructive borderline, impulsive borderline, petulant borderline. There are typologies—the Queen, the Waif, the Hermit, and the Witch. Keep reading »

I Have Severe Scoliosis, Just Like My Mom

Alyson GerberJune 24, 2010 //

“Beautiful sisters,” the barista complimented, handing us our matching black coffees.

“She’s my mother,” I corrected, smiling at her deep blue eyes, vanilla-colored hair and tiny frame. I loved when people thought I looked like her.

“Good genes,” he said.

He couldn’t see the long ragged scar hidden beneath her sundress, the splinters along my own hips, or the secret pain we shared with just each other. Keep reading »

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