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Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR

1. I TOOK TREATMENT AND
RECOVERY SERIOUSLY

How I broke up with my 
breakdowns 

ANA MARIA SANCHEZ-CASTILLO

MiC Staff Writer

This year I battled with psychosis and my 

clinical depression and it changed my life. 
I was confronted with some of my darkest 
demons. I felt out of touch with reality and 
my identity. Illusions and sensations became 
so terrifyingly vivid that my ability to func-
tion in everyday life had been disrupted. 

I saw the darkest parts of my psyche, and 

yet I came back with a completely altered 
perception of the world. I learned that just 
like the outside world, our minds can be dan-
gerous places and this is, to a large degree, 
out of our control. You see, with mental ill-
ness, chemicals alter our perceptions of 
ourselves and our positions in the world. It 
can completely warp the world and how we 
view it, it can completely alter relationships 
and major life decisions. I spent almost a full 
month in an extremely warped state and as 
terrifying of an experience as it was, it has 
allowed me to develop into a stronger, more 
intentional person. It also connected me 
with a plethora of resources and support I 
wouldn’t have had otherwise. Of course, no 
two people have the same brain or journey 
and experiences with these tools may differ, 
but with hard work and support, I am able to 
lean into myself, my needs and I am able to 
feel strong.

Bridging cultures at the
supermarket

JENNY CHONG
MiC Staff Writer

HIBAH CHUGHTAI

Read more at michigandaily.com

It was one of the few days out of the entire 

year that my mom had a day off work. On 
that bright and early Sunday morning, she 
decided there was no better way to spend 
her free time than to go grocery shopping 
with her eight-year-old daughter at Path-
mark, Brooklyn’s equivalent to Michigan’s 
Meijer. Expecting to buy groceries in bulk, 
my mom pulled out her red, four-wheeled 
foldable shopping cart from the living room 
closet. Without a car, we lugged the cart with 
us from our apartment on 7th Avenue to the 
supermarket eight avenues away. 

After enduring the 0.9 mile walk to Path-

mark in the 80 degree heat, I grabbed a 
weekly ad beside the automatic doors as my 
mother searched for a supermarket grocery 
cart in the parking lot. Immediately after 
entering the supermarket, I rushed towards 
every kid’s favorite place: the snack aisle. 
After a brief moment of deliberation, I tossed 
a pack of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts into 
our shopping cart. 

At the same time, my mom was standing 

in the middle of the aisle flipping through 
the colorful pages of the weekly ad, forming 
a mental list of the items she needed to buy 
that day. Honey glazed ham and La Yogurt 
were must-haves every time we shopped 
here, and we made sure to grab them from 
the deli and frozen goods section. A gallon 
of Lactaid milk, a family pack of boneless 
chicken breast and two dozen eggs later, our 
shopping cart began to reach its limit. 

Before heading towards the checkout line, 

however, my mom suddenly remembered 
that we were running low on cooking oil at 
home. We searched through all twelve aisles, 
passing by shelves holding Bounty paper 
towels, birthday cards and dog food. Still, 
corn oil was nowhere to be seen. At last, my 
mom decided to not waste any more time and 
approached a nearby Pathmark employee, a 
young Caucasian man, restocking the shelves 

with spaghetti boxes. 

With her strong Cantonese Chinese 

accent, she got the attention of the man by 
performing her own rendition of the phrase, 
“Excuse me.” 

“Ex-suh-cu-seh me,” she said with an 

oddly higher-than-normal pitched voice as if 
she were mocking Barbie’s voice. It brought 
shivers down my spine and not in a good way. 

The man put down the box of spaghetti 

from his hands and tilted his head 90 degrees 
to face my mom, giving her a nod of approval 
that he was listening. 

Without knowing how to say “corn oil” 

in English, she began conversing with the 
man using her limited English vocabulary. 
The conversation consisted of her using bro-
ken words and phrases, including “use make 
food” and “help look,” in addition to her 
making gestures of cooking with a pan as if 
she and the man were playing a game of cha-
rades. She looked silly doing so, and I couldn’t 
help but feel second-hand embarrassment. I 
wanted no association with the scene and I 
was sure the employee felt the same. Observ-
ing his facial expressions as she spent a min-
ute trying her best to describe what she was 
looking for, I could tell that he was flustered 
and getting lost in the conversation. 

My mom grew frustrated that he couldn’t 

understand her and called me over to help 
translate. In spite of learning English as 
a second language in school, I was able to 
read, speak and write in English fluently 
— even better than in my native language. 
This made communicating my mom’s needs 
to the employee easy. Asking him, “Where 
can I find cooking oil?” was a simple inter-
action for me. With that one question, he 
understood me right away and prompted us 
to head towards aisle three, where we were 
able to find our oil and finally check out. At 
that moment, I realized how powerful being 
able to speak English in America would be. 

Therapy
Therapy
If your mental health is damaging your 

ability to function optimally or at all, seeing 
a health professional is extremely important. 
Friends and family can be a wonderful sup-
port system, but a licensed professional can 
give unbiased, credentialed guidance. I’ve 
found cognitive behavioral therapy, psychia-
try and music therapy to be the most helpful 
in my recovery. 

Trusting someone and being genu-

inely vulnerable to another person can be 
extremely challenging, but with time comes 
the development of a relationship with a 
health professional that can not only provide 
guidance, but also provide another pillar of 
emotional support.

If you are unable to afford traditional 

therapy, there are a plethora of free mental 
health apps as well as online mental health 
resources, including books that you can cater 
to your personal experience or sentiments.

In the case of an emergency, please do not 

hesitate to reach out to crisis text and phone 
lines. The numbers for these can be found in 
the link above.

2. I SPENT MORE TIME
WITH LOVED ONES

Open to Love
Open to Love
The circumstances of my most danger-

ous depressive episode showed me the value 
of unconditional love. The interactions I 
had with my family and friends during this 
time helped me immensely in my recovery. 
Unconditional love can remind you of what 
you value, ensure you feel supported, show 
you tangible aspects of your reality and teach 
you how to think outside of yourself in your 
current mental space.

Read more at michigandaily.com

Medication
Medication
It was very difficult for me to become 

comfortable with taking medications; it can 

be hard to come to terms with relying on a 
substance to remain balanced. I found devel-
oping a relationship of trust with my psy-
chologist and therapist to be the most helpful 
in making my decision on taking substances. 

Medication is not always accessible, and 

for many people it is against cultural beliefs, 
and this can pose an issue as well. This is 
okay. Take your time, do what you need and 
rely on alternative therapy and the other list-
ed methods. 

Sometimes the chemical imbalances in 

our brains can’t be remedied without the 
help of medication. My tía says it’s like “driv-
ing a car without oil.” Medications can be a 
really sustainable way to balance your brain 
chemicals. Personally, finding the right 
medication has been really helpful in allow-
ing me to sustain my progress — of course it 
may not work for everyone and everyone is 
affected differently. 

Do not feel rushed or pressured to make a 

decision on this matter right away (it took me 
years and I am far from done). Connect with 
your support system and weigh out the pros 
and cons as you see fit. Your mental health is 
ultimately in your own hands and this mat-
ter requires you to be intuitive as well as your 
own biggest advocate, which can be difficult 
in itself.

Becoming Aware of How My Mental Ill-
Becoming Aware of How My Mental Ill-

ness Affects Others
ness Affects Others

How you feel affects those who love you 

and your relationship with them. When in 
a deep depressive state, it is difficult to see 
beyond that. That can include the senti-
ments and challenges that your loved ones 
are experiencing both related and unrelated 
to your situation. By starting to take active 
intention into staying mindful and aware of 
how those around you are doing, I was able 
to focus on others rather than being con-

3. I FOUND ROUTINES THAT
SET ME UP FOR A HEALTHY
AND PRODUCTIVE LIFE-
STYLE

