The First Time Someone Loved Me For Who I Really Am Summary

Mental illness is a subject that is overlooked and has been for many years. This is especially true when it comes to looking how a person's mental illness can affect their lives. In Maria Bamford's article, The First Time Someone Loved Me for Who I Really Am, she discusses mental illness and how it affected her career, relationship, and health. Working is almost impossible for the disabled, and though many don't think an illness such as depression can make you “disabled” and unable to work, there are still thousands of people who are dealing with that exact situation today. Bamford discusses her line of work as a comedian, which entails a hectic lifestyle where she is always traveling for her next show. Bamford was one of many who was
living with manic depression, and she also believed she could just take medication and would no longer be affected by her illness. This was proved to be wrong when she found herself bleeding and lost before a show, and she canceled all of her shows to get help. After she found herself in that condition before her show, Bamford went on to mental hospitals where she spent over a year and a half of her seemingly unbearable life.
She had gotten worse to the point that even she was scared of herself. Not only was she no longer able to work, which was what came first for her, she no longer felt healthy enough to be on her own. She started to question other patients on how they make it through all of the stress, and they almost all had someone who could support them in their times of need. While Bamford was in a stable and healthy enough mood to date, she took an opportunity and went on a date with a man named Scott. She said the date was only “nice” but she continued seeing him. They both realized they had flaws and were both willing to work together to get through them. This lead to them both breaking their streaks of short relationships and eventually becoming married. A few good examples of Maria’s transition techniques can be seen when she states that she does not believe she has to wait to be considered “lovable” to be loved, and then she starts a new paragraph with “And I was right” which connected those two paragraphs. Another greats example happens as she is discussing her first major incident with her mental illness, and ends that paragraph with “My manager heard my hyperventilating over the phone and canceled all four upcoming shows” and then begins the next with “Thus began a breakdown” and continued to state everything her first incident
caused. Even though many people are opening their minds up when it comes to the effect of having certain mental illnesses, they have been looked past for much too long. As a result, many people, such as Maria, don’t get help with their illness until they are fully grown adult and they have too many other responsibilities to worry about. Suddenly having aspects of your life changed drastically, including career, relationship, and health. by an underlying ignored illness can be too much for many.