In May 2017 I took a voluntary medical leave of absence after being released from the hospital. During the time I was suffering with an eating disorder, severe anxiety, depression, PTSD, trichotillomania, insomnia as well as ADHD. For most of my life I have suffered with these symptoms, without any treatment, yet I still succeeded academically and was able to function. In my childhood I experienced various forms of abuse and my family did not believe in mental illness nor have the resources to provide me with help, so I kept many of the struggles I faced hidden and continued to perform academically and maintain a perfectionist attitude. Many people in my community admired me but had no idea what I internally was dealing with. I believe that
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Insomnia would last most of the night, and when I was able to sleep, I often had night terrors. I believe that the night terrors became stronger as a result of seeing a former abuser that I had not seen in several years directly before entering into law school.
Since I had such trouble sleeping I would often self-medicate with alcohol. In the mornings it would be very difficult for me to wake up, I would be anxious and depressed, and I often thought life was not worth living. Once I finally made it to class I would have an extremely hard time focusing and never could quite grasp what the professor was teaching. Academics prior to entering into law school where my strength in life, until my first year at HLS. Entering HLS for me was a dream come true in theory but in reality, I often experienced imposter syndrome that fueled my anxiety to new …show more content…
I returned home to Rock Hill, SC where I began treatment at the Charlotte, NC Renfrew Center. My treatment team and I created a daily work schedule that required me to arrive for treatment by 9 am and then leave treatment return home and study for approximately six hours. During my first year of law school my lack of sleeping and functioning often caused me to be late or miss class, by traveling from Rock Hill, SC to Charlotte NC daily I was able to test my reliability and through the intensive anxiety treatment, I was able to begin driving, something I was incapable of doing before because of the frequent panic attacks I used to
Insomnia would last most of the night, and when I was able to sleep, I often had night terrors. I believe that the night terrors became stronger as a result of seeing a former abuser that I had not seen in several years directly before entering into law school.
Since I had such trouble sleeping I would often self-medicate with alcohol. In the mornings it would be very difficult for me to wake up, I would be anxious and depressed, and I often thought life was not worth living. Once I finally made it to class I would have an extremely hard time focusing and never could quite grasp what the professor was teaching. Academics prior to entering into law school where my strength in life, until my first year at HLS. Entering HLS for me was a dream come true in theory but in reality, I often experienced imposter syndrome that fueled my anxiety to new …show more content…
I returned home to Rock Hill, SC where I began treatment at the Charlotte, NC Renfrew Center. My treatment team and I created a daily work schedule that required me to arrive for treatment by 9 am and then leave treatment return home and study for approximately six hours. During my first year of law school my lack of sleeping and functioning often caused me to be late or miss class, by traveling from Rock Hill, SC to Charlotte NC daily I was able to test my reliability and through the intensive anxiety treatment, I was able to begin driving, something I was incapable of doing before because of the frequent panic attacks I used to