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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