This post is rather different. It's personal, it's honest, and it's very long (oops). But it's what I've wanted to say for a long time. I hope others can benefit from me sharing my experiences because I know that mental illness affects so many of us, and sometimes it's hard to see it ever ending. You just wonder when you will feel better, feel normal again. It almost seems impossible, like you're stuck in a vicious, never-ending cycle. The cycle does break. You can feel normal again. And things do get better.

Somehow through a stream of events, you have found yourself here, at my blog. So hey there! My name is Madeline, but people call me Maddy, Mads, or even the name I went by when I was four - Ariel. I'm eighteen years old, straight out of high school and into my first year of my Law degree. I'm creative and passionate, I thoroughly enjoy a glass (or maybe three) of rosè and I eat ice-cream in winter because I don't let the temperature dictate what I can and can't eat.