I don’t know about you, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep my head above water these days. Part of it is school and part of it is depression, but most of it is just … life. There’s always something bad going on. Another…
The Wolf Finally Frees Itself
— Brianna Albers
Brianna Albers (she/her) is a crip-cyborg storyteller living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 in 1996 and lives with co-occurring physical and mental health conditions. By day she works as an advocate, bridging disability and mental health awareness to empower people to live their best lives; by night, she dabbles in imagination, and is currently writing “Death and the Blade,” a romance-forward adult fantasy novel with #OwnVoices disability representation. Find her online at briehalbers.com and on social media @briehalbers.
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It started with what I had assumed was an ordinary breakout. I’d been stressed from moving for the first time in my life, and had punted on my typically zealous hygiene because, well, moving. You can’t really blame your skin for getting bad when you stop doing the things that make it good. Breakouts are already stressful enough, but this…
A few years ago, right around the time I started college, I fell into the deep, dark hole that is depression. Not knowing what the hole of depression usually looks like, I had no way of pulling myself out. So I just sat at the…
I always get something out of my therapy sessions. Sometimes it’s a word or a phrase. I’ll never forget when my therapist told me that, even in the midst of an attack, I won’t be anxious forever. I don’t struggle as much with anxiety…
I’m writing this in the car again, off to Iowa for a weekend of family visits. It was a busy week, so I’m looking forward to a couple of hours of driving. For me it is a chance to catch up on things: Grad school applications, classwork.
By the time this gets published, I’ll have started the last semester of my undergraduate career, which is exciting … and terrifying in equal measure. People always say it goes by fast, and in some ways it does, but all I’ve been able to think…
We made it home safely after a long road trip! And we’re all pretty much exhausted. We’ve been on some pretty intense trips over the years, but this one might be our personal best: upwards of a thousand miles in less than…
Some of you may know that a year or so ago I founded Monstering, a magazine for disabled women and non-binary people. It started with the desire to create and produce a small, handmade zine. I’d always wanted a space to…
True to my word, I joined a dating site this week. And by this week, I mean the day I wrote this column, since I’ve been putting it off all week. But I did it! Which means I can tell my therapist on Tuesday that, yes,…
I went to therapy this week for the first time in, get this — 14 months. I talked about loneliness; a familiar creature, at least to me. I’ve always felt its dark shadow, heavy and suffocating — even as a seventh-grader, during what…
I’ve been trying to resist my depression ever since I wrote my column on disability, mental illness, and my inability to pretend that everything in my life is OK. When I say resist, though, I don’t mean that I’m ignoring it…
I’ve been depressed on and off for over a decade; I’ve what is called persistent depressive disorder or “dysthymia.” I still feel hopeless, I still lack productivity, I still struggle to enjoy my favorite activities — they’re just intermittent, and…
I’ve been an Apple user since my senior year of high school. And before that I was an iPhone user — and before that, an iPod user, and by iPod I mean the literal brick that was the first generation iPod Classic. Apple…
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