Stigma + Perception ≠ Reality

After I first had my stroke and came home from the hospital, my initial instinct was not to tell people. I didn’t want people to think if I misspoke that it was because of my stroke. I also wasn’t quite sure I had all the information about what happened to properly tell people. Towards the end of December 2023, I realized we needed recommendations for neurologists and neurosurgeons and it was time to tell people and see if they could give us references. Our friends and family were amazingly helpful with recommendations and support, and I started getting more comfortable telling my story. I also slowly came around to the fact that I was going to misspeak, or misspell something, or make a mistake because that’s life and everybody does that regardless of if they have a stroke. It was harder though to know what to do in other circumstances.

In June 2024 I attended a conference for Legal Operations, and I didn’t know if I should tell anyone or whether or not anyone would care about this life altering personal thing that happened to me. As time went on though I realized this personal thing affected me professionally. So, I started talking about my stroke at work and I started talking about the well-being barriers I was putting in place. I started writing and sharing my story. My day job has given me the opportunities at the team and department level to share my story and the well-being practices I’ve now adopted, unfiltered.

I am very upfront about my weekly therapy sessions (culminating this week in an appearance in an employee newsletter) and the care team I have made for myself. Therapy is another thing that gets stigmatized both personally and professionally. I started therapy because of the trauma of my stroke, but what I have uncovered is years of other issues that I should have sought help with and didn’t. I no longer recommend the EAP to people; I only recommend consistent long-term therapy. I’ve stopped caring what people may think/judge me on. The universe has reinforced my journey by continuing to find ways for me to share my story and help people live healthier lives. This has given me comfort to be my authentic self in all facets of my life.

Have you ever allowed stigma and perception to shape your reality? What did you take away from the experience?