My Mental Illness, My Broken Brain, and My New Etsy Shop!

How it all connects:

I have no idea what’s wrong with me. In 2008, I was formally diagnosed with anxiety and depression, put on medication, and started therapy. Later, I battled my eating disorder through two weeks of outpatient treatment and two years of private therapy. Then, my brain broke. Well, I think it was always broken, but due to years of therapy, I now had the agency and vocabulary to express that what I was going through wasn’t “normal.” It was simply my normal.

My mind is a hamster running on her wheel. It’s a million ants crawling under my skin. It’s a never ending nightmare factory that keeps me from sleeping. It also fuels obsessive hobbies. I have no idea what the official diagnosis would be for my brain. One therapist said with great certainty that I have ADHD. A week later, another therapist said with complete resolve that I don’t have ADHD. Autism? I wouldn’t be surprised. Bipolar? I don’t know. I’ve lived with this my whole life, and, honestly, I’m at the point where I think it might just be for the best if I accept it and embrace the positive side of things.

Enter my obsessive hobby of embroidery. I’ve been doing it for years and it’s taken over my house. I have finished hoop art hanging on the walls, propped up on my writing desk, and even displayed in the bathroom. They’re literally outnumbering creatures in the house five to one.

So, I’ve started an Etsy shop! It’s called Bury Your Thread and it has a variety of spooky, sci-fi-, abstract, pop culture, and holiday work. I’m going to be adding more and more as time goes on, but the initial inventory is up! It’s all newly created as my anxiety has been on high alert lately and my hands need to do something, so these designs are all freshly conjured from my brain!

I’m still working out how Etsy works, so there may be a few hiccups at first. Thank you for your patience!

If you want to see what mental illness looks like for me, check out my Etsy shop!

https://buryyourthread.etsy.com