What you’re reading on this page is the May 2022 version of who I am. Sometimes I forget that the Self is always evolving (for most of us, anyway) and that our circumstances, perspectives, beliefs, and personalities are not static. That’s why I update this page as needed. 🙂

• I am someone who has, historically, always put other people first – but I’ve recently gotten much better at taking care of myself.
• My diagnoses have been Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I can now happily say that my BPD dx has left the building! 🙂
• At the beginning of my foray into psychiatric care, in 2001, I was MISDIAGNOSED as Bipolar, Type II. This designation lasted 14 years and was not questioned by subsequent psychiatrists; they just accepted it. Therefore, many of the psych meds and treatment methods I tried were, since they were for the treatment of Bipolar Disorder, absolutely useless to me. They wasted my time and my money – and helped convince me that I would die alone and depressed.
• I’m one of those “highly sensitive” people (a blessing and a curse!).
• My life used to be dictated by low self-esteem, zero confidence in myself, and putting out emotional fires. My perspective changed a few years ago, and as a result, I’m bringing the focus of Depression Warrior from mental illness to mental wellness.
• I am, most definitely, an introvert (INFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale); but I can easily chit-chat with the next person in line at the grocery store.
• I am a published author 🙂  My debut YA (young adult) novel, The Katie Chronicles, was published by a small, independent publishing house in early 2019. It has a strong mental health angle to it, specifically dealing with a teenage girl’s anxiety and depression surrounding her parents’ divorce.
• I am a native Detroiter, and proud of it.
• I love photography, but since I’m always the one taking pictures, I’m never in any of them. Thus my penchant for selfies 🙂
• I love to bake. I find it relaxing and therapeutic.
• I am the youngest of five kids and the only girl. Spoiled? Yes. Spoiled brat? Absolutely not! 🙂
• In my wildest dreams, I would have been a professional tennis player.
• I was married to my high school sweetheart (a man) for twelve years.
• I just got divorced from my wife of sixteen years.
• Speaking of which, I didn’t know I was a lesbian until I was 35 years old. No, really. I wasn’t in the closet or in denial, I simply didn’t know. Hey, it happens.
• I am a mama to two cats in Minnesota – Zero and Zander – and two here in Michigan, Nahla-Man (14 years old) and Thor “The Flash” Magnusson, who is a very cuddly, adorable, rambunctious one-year-old.
• I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for six years and LOVED it. Although I then lived in Minnesota for 16 years and am now back in Detroit, I still miss California every day and would love to move back. <3
• My girlfriend and I are moving to the Virginia Beach area at the end of the year. Woohoo, sunshine!!
• I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that people come into my life at certain times to teach me certain things.
• For more than 30 years, I truly believed that I was doomed to be severely depressed until the day I died (probably by my own hand). But finally, after being introduced to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), I feel SO MUCH BETTER! I am living proof that you must advocate for yourself – if one treatment isn’t working for you, try a different one. Meds and therapy can certainly help, but they may not be enough.
• If nothing else, I am resilient. 🙂