Shannon Love

After growing up in rural Alabama as a stable and contented youngster, I married my childhood sweetheart and joined him in a life of travel and adventure. His job, combined with our enterprising natures, established us in a nomadic lifestyle that we enjoyed thoroughly. Within our first ten years of marriage, our family grew from two members to five. Refusing to slow down, our kids simply adapted, assembling into each of the five states in which we resided, as well as our years abroad, when we lived in Spain, Angola, and China.

Then--as life sometimes does--it placed a detour directly in my path. Unsympathetic to my location or circumstances, Mother Nature tinkered with my neurotransmitters while we were living in Beijing, and thus, fate sent me to a new destination --the world of psychosis, a place far more alien than any I had yet visited. Hijacked by happenstance, I was pulled out of my sane world and transported to a bizarre planet filled with hallucinations and delusions.

Fortunately, friends and family grasped arms and held me tight, preventing me from falling into ruin. Now, once again happy, healthy, and stable, I pay it forward by sharing my intimate and unsettling story. I hope that my words will help erase the stigma attached to these diseases that toy with our minds and torment our emotions.

Although I refuse to be ashamed of my illness and choose to stand tall--stating boldly, "My name is Shannon Love, and I have a severe mental illness," it is not my only identity. As a mom and wife, I adore my husband, two sons, and daughter. As a regular gal, I look forward to lunch dates with my girlfriends, and as a creative thinker, when I'm not writing, I enjoy dabbling in watercolors, acrylics, and clay. Confessing my inadequacies, I profess that my words paint a far better picture than does my brush. With that said, I also admit to singing in the shower, although I am known to be tone-deaf.