Before The Dawn
Liron Cohen
This is my journey to mental health. My journey has presented me with challenges since I was very very young. From actual mental health struggles, with social anxiety, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, and self harm, to other parts of my life that required their own mental gymnastics: being a highly sensitive person, being a gay woman (which is not a mental health issue on its own, but living as a suppressed minority in this world can be), being diagnosed with a chronic illness, figuring out I had ADHD at age 40… And I also carry with me some of my forefathers’ scars, as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. I’m not doing this podcast because it’s all over. I’m not here to tell you how I made it out the other end. Mental health is a lifelong journey that requires constant maintenance, and it keeps presenting us with new challenges as life’s twists and turns unfold. But after thirty-some years of dealing w