Personal Reflective Essay: My Experience With Clinical Depression

I wasn’t even considered a teenager when I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I hadn’t even understood the concept of mental disability when I began physically harming myself. All I knew was that cutting provided temporary relief from my anxieties, anxieties that I was hardly able to comprehend. A twelve-year-old is not supposed to hate themselves or be crippled by their own sadness, and yet at that time I was unscrewing the blades off pencil sharpeners anyways. For a large portion of my life I was not sure what had happened to me and why I was the way I was so early in my adolescence. This uncertainty drove my passion for learning, for understanding. And while all subjects hold insight, I find myself most drawn to two: biology and psychology. These areas of study allow you to perceive your surroundings through different …show more content…
I had completely let go of all inspiration. It wasn’t until I got help from a therapist that anything changed. My therapist taught me how to understand my disorder, and how to ensure it wouldn’t limit me. She re-established my motivation and my ambitiousness. Simply sitting across from a stranger who was willing to listen was encouraging, and led me to believe that all anyone ever needs is someone to talk to. After I got help and discontinued my maladaptive coping mechanism, I decided I would become a developmental psychologist down the line, so I could sit with other adolescents like me and help them go through what I went through, just as my therapist did. Psychology is an astounding subject because it contains a set of ideas and practices that save lives. Without gaining that drive, the drive for knowledge and perspicaciousness, I might not have made it this far into my life. If I hadn’t decided I didn’t want to be ignorant about my disorder anymore, my life could have ceased at the mere age of twelve. And that is why I am endlessly grateful for my resiliency, as well as my