I Couldn't Tell Anyone

I have been a dental hygienist for thirty-four years. I talked to my patients about having breast CANCER on four occasions. However, for fear of being judged, I could not talk about the eight forced visits that I had to undergo at psychiatric hospitals, where I was labelled as being BI-POLAR. “I Couldn’t Tell Anyone” is about my confinement in a psychiatric hospital, the fear of rejection, feeling misunderstood, alone and ashamed of who I am. Mental illness brings out the worst in people around you. Avoidance comes to mind, leaving me feeling misunderstood and unloved. Cancer brings out the best in people around you; at last I feel loved. I was not born with a mental illness, I am a product of my past and it has been a long road full of tears and laughter. The root of my problems began in childhood when I was abandoned by my American father and raised by a traumatised English mother.