About

Hello, Reader, and welcome to the Dissociated Press. This blog has been around, in one form or another, since 2013. At the time, I was struggling with chronic depersonalization and thought I was being witty. Over time, the name just kind of stuck.

I go by J. I’m in my early thirties now and am a licensed mental health and addictions counselor. I also have a trauma history that, honestly, would make for a really great superhero backstory. My interest in mental health collided with my passion for writing when I was 19 years old, when I started a column in my hometown’s newspaper. Admittedly, I was in the throes of mania at the time, but it had a pretty good run. That was my first taste of how sharing our stories can help other people.

Bipolar I runs in my family, as does alcoholism. I had a difficult childhood. We didn’t talk about mental illness or addiction or any of that stuff, which I think made me even more determined to talk about that stuff.

The story of how I became a therapist has a lot of twists and turns. Basically, I decided years ago that my Ultimate End Game was to write a book featuring the stories of other people living with mental illness–a collection of oral histories from people who live this reality every single day. I realized that there was no way in hell I was going to get there unless I had some credentials, and I’ve always found people interesting. Also, I knew that my student loans will probably outlive me, so I decided to go to grad school.

It’s been a blast so far! I get to listen to stories for a living and accompany people on their journeys, which is the coolest job I can imagine.