Sep 24, 2023·edited Sep 24, 2023Liked by Chris Wells
Chris, this is wonderful and brutal. It breaks my heart that you would have to work so hard to get where you are and elucidates that all the wrong people end up with imposter syndrome. I'm the opposite of you in so many ways, but your story resonates profoundly- for me I was anti mental illness, denying there was anything "wrong" with me and didn't start medication until my mid 30's after the birth of my son- largely precipitated by post partum depression (but that I can now see through the lens of TPD) that had me in a state of extreme psychosis. I was faking it until I could make it, then medication "magically" became a set of crutches to hold me up and heal. And the brain space it cleared was a revelation.
But it was temporary. I kept itching toward understanding myself and also knew there was *more* to it. That sent me on a dalliance with pathology and I feel lucky as hell that it "only" took a decade to detach from that and move toward the truth of my inherent existential intelligence.
I didn't have a "career" or a "proper" education so spent decades gaslighting myself into believing I didn't know what I was talking about. Bumping into you, at this crossroads in my journey gives me so much hope and optimism in US, in the reach of TPD and of helping make sense of myriad life experiences for ourselves and our communities. What a gift to the world you are!
Thank you, Bee! I have hope and optimism in us, too. I so appreciate you sharing here. <3
It was tricky to talk about coming off of medication because it's not black and white, and there were some meds that I found very helpful while others were either neutral or even caused problems. All of this is complicated, messy, and different for each of us.
The more I embrace the neurodiversity movement as part of my work, which I didn't have the space to get into in this post, the more I realize how many people are still out there suffering because they don't have answers about themselves. No matter how we come to TPD, I'm grateful that we have a community where we can support each other and work together to bring others the relief we've found.
Chris, this is wonderful and brutal. It breaks my heart that you would have to work so hard to get where you are and elucidates that all the wrong people end up with imposter syndrome. I'm the opposite of you in so many ways, but your story resonates profoundly- for me I was anti mental illness, denying there was anything "wrong" with me and didn't start medication until my mid 30's after the birth of my son- largely precipitated by post partum depression (but that I can now see through the lens of TPD) that had me in a state of extreme psychosis. I was faking it until I could make it, then medication "magically" became a set of crutches to hold me up and heal. And the brain space it cleared was a revelation.
But it was temporary. I kept itching toward understanding myself and also knew there was *more* to it. That sent me on a dalliance with pathology and I feel lucky as hell that it "only" took a decade to detach from that and move toward the truth of my inherent existential intelligence.
I didn't have a "career" or a "proper" education so spent decades gaslighting myself into believing I didn't know what I was talking about. Bumping into you, at this crossroads in my journey gives me so much hope and optimism in US, in the reach of TPD and of helping make sense of myriad life experiences for ourselves and our communities. What a gift to the world you are!
Thank you, Bee! I have hope and optimism in us, too. I so appreciate you sharing here. <3
It was tricky to talk about coming off of medication because it's not black and white, and there were some meds that I found very helpful while others were either neutral or even caused problems. All of this is complicated, messy, and different for each of us.
The more I embrace the neurodiversity movement as part of my work, which I didn't have the space to get into in this post, the more I realize how many people are still out there suffering because they don't have answers about themselves. No matter how we come to TPD, I'm grateful that we have a community where we can support each other and work together to bring others the relief we've found.