Starting mainstream schooling later in life, Jonathan Riley had trouble making friends, speaking publicly, and reading at grade level. All of this piled on with depression meant they had a lot of work ahead of them.
If all you knew about mental illness came from television, you might think everyone with obsessive compulsive disorder was a “crazy clean freak.” Alexandra Ages begs to differ—a person with a mental illness is much more than a television archetype.
I felt like a complete failure. I had always been able to handle everything without an issue. But at first, navigating depression was another story.
It’s okay to not always know how to navigate complex memories, emotions and traumas. The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a gift in teaching me these things.