Confident: In Who I Am

I went to a coffee shop today. There are a number of people who frequent this coffee shop (Mocha Joe's) that like to play chess. I met up with one of them. He sat down at my table and we talked a little about how frequently we had been playing. In explaining that I had not been playing a whole lot, I told him that I had been writing quite a bit lately. I told him that I had a blog. He asked what the topic of the blog was and I said mental health and recovery.

In times past I have been embarrassed to tell people that I have a mental illness. I did not go out and say to my chess buddy that I suffered from schizophrenia, but I am pretty sure he got it. Later that day I participated in a support group. I announced what I had done to the group.

The topic of the group was what recovery means to us. We went over quotes of what others said recovery was to them. We also added our own. I said "recovery is gaining confidence in who I am." I feel like I have not been confident enough in who I was to share that I have a mental illness in times past. Today I felt differently and am proud I took that step.