Author Archives: amindwarrior

I really enjoyed being a rep for Welcome Week and had a lot of fun. I had trouble tolerating the weight gain, and my mood still wasn’t great. I also became stressed about school very quickly. I was also stressed about having enough time to spend with my boyfriend along with my volunteering and tourContinue reading “Third Year Begins”

Second semester was smoother because I now had two friends in my program: Brianne and Luke. I sat with them in a lot of our classes and was grateful to feel more connected. One of my courses involved doing some work in a neuroscience lab, and I was grateful for the experience. I finally hadContinue reading “Second Year Part 2”

At this point, I had been connected with a private psychologist in Burlington to continue working on issues related to anxiety, perfectionism, depression and my eating disorder. I felt guilty because I knew my parents had to pay for it, but also felt like I really needed the support. I was living in a studentContinue reading “Starting Second Year”

As second semester started, I once again felt intense pressure to excel. I proved to myself in first semester that if I tried, I could do really well. In first semester I had physics, chemistry, psychology, economics, and biology, and I got an A or A+ in all of them. This combined with my stressContinue reading “Second Semester of First Year”

At the end of August, I moved into residence at McMaster University to start my undergraduate degree in Life Sciences. The morning I was supposed to move in, my mother sat down at our family table with me. She said, “So, are you going to eat this year?” I was mortified. By then I knewContinue reading “Starting University (Again)”

I was connected with a psychologist and started taking the antidepressants. I was extremely fortunate that the antidepressant seemed to work fairly quickly. It definitely numbed my thoughts and made living more bearable. I remember getting some strange side effects, like a tingly nose and feeling very fatigued. My dad watched me at home, andContinue reading “My Unplanned Gap Year”

Coming home didn’t end up feeling as good as I thought it would. I think I had some delusional fantasy that if I went home all of my mental and physical issues would just go away. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Halloween weekend was coming up, and I was already thinking about where IContinue reading “Leaving University”

I remember feeling anxious driving to university with my parents, with all my things packed in the car. The move-in went smoothly, I had a private room in a beautiful new residence, and I shared a bathroom with a friend from high school. My parents helped me set my things up, and left. I rememberContinue reading “Starting First Year”

The summer after high school went by very quickly. I was working as a cashier at Denninger’s, and trying to enjoy myself after successfully graduating high school. I no longer had to stress about grades and devote a good chunk of time to school, so that focus and obsession turned to food and exercise. IContinue reading “The Summer After High School”

I was terrified of going to high school. So terrified, I cried the night before, laying in my bed wondering what it would be like. Would I do well in school? Will I adapt? Will I get beaten up? Most of my friends from elementary school were going to the same school as me, soContinue reading “The Transition to High School”