[Beninho]

As someone who has OCD and super similar experiences as far as the dark thoughts as Hirsch explained this article was beautiful. It's so hard for people who don't have the illness to understand. For me it happened during my first year of Univeristy and I went the whole year confused and scared of why I kept on visualizing and constantly thinking about these dark thoughts. I was and still am a very happy go lucky person so these thoughts were so scary and uncharacteristic for me. It got to a point where I was crying myself to sleep every night while being so confused on why I couldn't stop thinking these scary thoughts about harming myself. There was one day that I managed to get to class (which I had been skipping because of my illness) and these thoughts were just rushing threw my head and I just ran out of the room. I had a full on panic attack, I had many of them but this one was the worst. I was as pale as a ghost and at this point I was very close to doing the acts my brain was constantly repeating over and over in my head. It's here where I realized I needed help and found an incredible psychologist on campus and got on the correct medication. Now i'm in my 4th year and hopefully will graduate by next semester! I still have to deal with OCD everyday but with the right help and counseling I'm able to live again! Coming out and talking about your experiences with mental illnesses is so incredibly hard because there always will be people who just don't understand. Amazing article by Corey! Takes a lot of courage to discuss such personal problems, much respect. Hopefully we will continue getting rid of the taboo that mental illnesses still have!