WELCOME.
I'm glad you found me
About
My name is Ashley Marie Berry
I'm not sure if it was you or I who were lost, but we've found each other and now we can laugh, learn, and connect to each other's beautiful minds.
My diagnosis are just parts of me, they're not all of me. They are separate things within me that bubble up sometimes and i need to squash them down. When i'm not squashing...
I'm a mom to an extraordinary child. We live with two golden retrievers, a leopard gecko and an axolotl. (And some fish when the axolotl lets them live)
I love to sew, write and create.
I use my notebook in my phone to write down my thoughts, and later they will turn into something beautiful. A poem, a list, or a journal entry.
My last entry was -- What colour is sleep?
And I'm still deciding what that means.
I wake up with ideas. Some are in word form, others are images in bold colours.
I don't like crowded spaces, they crowd my thoughts and make my journal lie still. It flattens me until I recharge.
Extroverted energy overwhelms me. I like to be alone, or with my favourite few people.
So join me, together but alone, in this journey of trying to find the sunlight.
It's easier if we do this together right?
Let's go
Check out the BLOG
A little background ... I wrote a memoir about all of me.
I turned personal stories that were brittle and unfocused into something purposefully beautiful, a survival guide for one of 'us'.
I was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety at age seven.
My first depressive episode was in high school. My friends were contemplating which colour lip gloss to wear, while i was contemplating if i still wanted to be here-here, like here on this earth.
My diagnosis changed from depression to major depressive disorder (MDD) in my early twenties. I was 29 the first time i experienced mania, when my diagnosis changed one last time to Bipolar disorder.
I've been hospitalized six times. My longest stay being 61 days.
During my last hospitalization, i was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.
I recently had ECT, which brought me out of my depressive episode that lasted longer than a year. I'm still regaining memories i lost during this time.