Introductory Post: Hello, who am I, why am I here?

Hello Internet! My name is Ann Marie and I've been wanting to start a blog about mental health stuff for years now, so here we are. I am titling this blog Progress Notes, named after both the clinical notes that therapists make post-session, but also in keeping with the theme of the personal progress I've made through learning about and talking about mental health.

So, who am I and why am I allowed to talk about mental health? I'll answer the second question first. Anyone and everyone can talk about mental health. If you experience affect, had had life experiences, have emotional response, and/or have cognitive processes, you can talk about mental health. For transparency purposes, I have been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (for which I was medicated for about three years), and Seasonal Affective Disorder. I have also experienced what I would consider undiagnosed depression or adjustment disorder. In addition to all of that, I hold a Masters degree in Applied Psychology / Counseling, and that is not to say that I "know better" than anyone else, but rather to show you how much I love talking about and learning about psychology and how important helping others through counseling is to me.

The reason that I am here is because I wanted to add my voice - a queer feminist voice - to the myriad of other amazing mental health bloggers out there. In reality, I have wanted to start the blog since I began grad school in 2012, and then even more fervently since I learned about my colleague's blog, What's Your Grief (which you should absolutely read). I finished graduate school in December 2015 and therefore, have more time to blog, and respond, and have life experiences outside of school. I want to talk about everything from the stigma of mental illness, to practicing radical self-care, to what trauma does to our brains, to how therapy works.

I hope that you enjoy this blog and the things that I will be discussing here. If you have any questions or concerns about what I am discussing, I will be happy to answer them as best as I can, and I will likely point you to reputable and empirically-based sources. If you have any suggestions about what you'd like to see me blog about, I'm happy to take them, and I'd also like to start an "advice column" (which will really be more of a self-exploration column, in the style of Cheryl Strayed's Dear Sugar), so start thinking about questions that you may have. I'd love to have guest bloggers in the future as well, so let me know if you'd like to contribute to this online community.

Thank you for being here, for listening and for processing with me!