Down the Rabbit Hole

Short essay. I wrote this for an assignment sophomore year. The prompt was "write about an event that changed you"... what better thing to write about as a fifteen year old girl than my developing depression and anxiety? This was my final copy, for those of you wondering, it got me an A in the class. But the reason I'm publishing this here isnt to brag about a good grade. It's to try and relate to others. To show that there are others out there and to show that there's not a certain "type" of people that are depressed or have anxiety. It's not just the bullied, or the beaten down, or the abused. It's not just people with body image issues or eating disorders. Sometimes it's the honors student, or the star musician, or the varsity athlete. It's not something you control. And it's not something you can stereotype. This is my story, and if I'm being honest I BS'd the ending so my teacher wouldn't stage an intervention or something. I still have issues, I'm still depressed, it actually got worse later in my sophomore year (post-publication) and I started actually seeing a therapist. I still lie to people and say "I'm fine", but it's usually when people throw me pity parties and start treating me as if I have a terminal illness and I might break at any given moment. But anyway, this is probably the only non fiction piece I'll ever publish. -Mack