Personal Narrative: My Experience With Mental Illness

Failure and setbacks are a usual occurrence within society, most people experience many of these within their lifetime. A few years ago I experienced a dramatic setback that eventually allowed me to mature and learn. This setback lasted two years and I am still affected by it. During my middle school career, I was diagnosed with a series of mental illnesses which even caused me to be institutionalized. Throughout my 16 years of life, this was the most toilsome and gruesome experience.
All of the mental illnesses began to develop in sixth grade, the main cause of the start was the change of environment. I was too focused on school work rather than my mental state so they slowly began to worsen. Due to this, I began to mutilate myself and even thought of suicide arose. This was brought to my parent’s attention when I was in seventh grade, and it resulted in me being put into a mental and behavioral institution. Following my first institutionalization, I was still not taking care of myself mentally; I was still harming myself and the thought of suicide still continued to arise.
During eighth grade I experienced an epiphany, I realized how …show more content…
However, another challenge arose. I realized how bad the mental health care in my city and state was and how difficult it was to find and keep a therapist that met all of my needs. I learned that most therapists and psychiatrists don’t focus on the patient nor try to sympathize. This is when I realized that my dream job would be to become a psychiatrist, and I began the long-term goal of making a difference in mental health care. I began to research how to become a psychologist and open my own psychology office. I want to give others who have experienced similar things as me, the help and understanding I never received from my own mental health care providers. I even tried to inspire people around me who have experienced similar