Month: March 2019

Illness

I’ve never wanted to die

Olivia Epley5 Comments

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

I’ve never wanted to die. Sure, I’ve tried to kill myself. I’ve done so three times, and with varying degrees of severity. But I never was fully committed, though I was as committed as anyone can be. Let me explain. The first time I tried to kill myself is an occasion that I don’t like… Continue reading I’ve never wanted to die

Videos

VIDEO: 3 Days in a Mentally Ill Life

Olivia Epley2 Comments

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

Below is a video I made documenting 3 days in my life. I discuss panic attacks, PTSD, anxiety, dermatillomania, and my eating disorder. If seeing tears is unpalatable to you, steer clear, but otherwise I hope this is informative and offers good insight! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtnKY4k7RF8

OCD

I’m So OCD: Inflated Sense of Responsibility

Olivia Epley4 Comments

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

For my whole life, I’ve been the mom friend. Lots of people describe themselves this way. I’ve long been the good influence friend, the alcohol and drug free one who obeyed all traffic signs and only crossed at the crosswalk. It’s said that with every mental disorder, there is a degree of sensibility, and the… Continue reading I’m So OCD: Inflated Sense of Responsibility

Treatment

Nature and Therapy

Olivia EpleyLeave a comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

Anyone who knows me knows, too, that aside from my parents’ apartments in the Connecticut suburbs, I call a few acres in the middle of the lush woods of Vesuvius, Virginia, home. In a similar manner, I call the mental hospital I’ve spent the most time at my home, too. I was inspired to make… Continue reading Nature and Therapy

OCD

I’m So OCD: Powerlessness

Olivia Epley1 Comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

I’ve recently been diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. It’s somewhat common in its form of PMS, but more severe. In my case, I only experience one kind of premenstrual symptom. No cramps or irritability for me. Instead, I am intensely, cripplingly hopeless and desperate for a week. It’s a pattern I’ve been noticing for a… Continue reading I’m So OCD: Powerlessness

Treatment

Wealth and Mental Health

Olivia EpleyLeave a comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

Boy, am I lucky. I’ve been privy to some of the most elite treatment centers in the country. My family may  not be particularly well off, but I happen to live in a geographic area that allows for my placement in the best programs. When I was sent to the emergency room, on three occasions… Continue reading Wealth and Mental Health

Illness

Trauma, Associative Loss, and Harry Potter

Olivia EpleyLeave a comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

Have you ever thrown some food up while sick and been, later in life, unable to stomach that food? Every time you are near that food, you feel nauseous. One pre-middle school summer, I ate hundreds of raspberries from the bushes around my local pool, and upon throwing them up one day, I was henceforth… Continue reading Trauma, Associative Loss, and Harry Potter

School

College Admissions and Mental Illness

Olivia Epley1 Comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

I knew a family, once, in which both of the parents came from privileged financial backgrounds and met at Harvard. Fast forward to today, they bask in unimaginable and wasteful wealth. Oblivious to the privilege they bear, they have a personal driver on call and a room in their mansion that can’t even be entered,… Continue reading College Admissions and Mental Illness

School

The Therapeutic School and Your Child

Helen EpleyLeave a comment

Helen Epley

Latest posts by Helen Epley (see all)

Every child is different.  Every school is different.  No school can help all children thrive.  Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  All of that said and understood, it is my opinion that you, as the parent of a teen suffering with mental illness, must be as picky as possible about Any special school you consider… Continue reading The Therapeutic School and Your Child

Relationships

My brush with the “lying disorder”

Olivia EpleyLeave a comment

Olivia Epley

Founder of Millennial Girl, Interrupted, a senior in a small Connecticut high school. I've been through many treatments and recoveries and am eager to share the lessons I've learned!

Latest posts by Olivia Epley (see all)

Having been through the ringer in terms of therapeutic exposure, that exposure being both to therapies and to fellow patients, I feel that it’s important for me to share some of the darker sides of what I’ve seen with you all. What feels perfectly normal to you is like floating on cloud nine to myself… Continue reading My brush with the “lying disorder”