Member-only story
Why I Am Proud to Be a Writer
And why you should be too
Introduction: How Mental Illness Turned Me into a Writer
Recently I was watching Seinfeld — for my money the greatest sitcom ever created — and noticed across multiple episodes how the man himself, Jerry Seinfeld, always seemed proud to be a comedian. Whenever I have watched his interviews, I have gotten the same impression: Seinfeld believes comedy is a noble profession and is proud to be a comedian.
Which made me ask myself: Am I proud of what I do? Am I proud to be a writer? And, to my surprise, I discovered the answer was yes. Surprise, because I am not a proud person. Since I was a child I have been told I have an inferiority complex, that I constantly put myself down. But I am proud to be a writer. Very.
I became an author when I was nineteen. I had been trying to write a novel for years, but with limited success. I was missing something. Then, at fourteen, I was diagnosed with clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and panic disorder. The next seven years were exceptionally difficult. I was drowning.
Those with anxiety and depression will know how they turn your life into a living nightmare. My days became a blur of tears, panic attacks, helplessness, and melancholia. Sometimes I did not…
