There's No Coming Back from This

by Ann Garvin

“Mental illness isn’t personal, it’s illness.” Going on to say, “You wouldn’t take another person’s diabetes as a slight against you, would you?”

You know, if you stood up for yourself like you do for everyone else, maybe I could respect you. I did put others first. I’d long known that if you focus on other people, you don’t have to figure out what you want. If you never ask anything for yourself, you’ll never discover who cares or, for that matter, doesn’t care.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And then, Just because it’s easy doesn’t make it right.

So many like us, just like us, misunderstanding the adoring looks, only to be tossed aside when asserting . . . anything real. Fired for a no, I don’t want to be a criminal. A no to basically anything. Women learn to be pleasing—often their lives and livelihoods depend on it.