Welcome! This is Me!

Hi!  Welcome to my blog.  I've been planning on starting this for years, in fact, when I came back to this post today, I had to update quite a bit of information.  I'm Cheryl.  I am a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, a veteran,  and so much more.  I have been married to my wonderful husband since 2011, I have an amazing 7-year-old son, the sweetest 14-year-old step-daughter, and a sweet and sour patch kid who just turned 1.  I am also a fur-mom of a zoo.  We have two fat, lazy cats, Lucky and Chip; and three dogs.  The Lab is Copper, the Dachshund is Lady, and the German Shepherd is Bolt. (All named from Disney Characters because I am a child at heart).  We also have six egg-yielding chickens named after the Golden Girls (Blanch, Rose, Sophia, Dorothy, Betty, and Rue Bea).  I am a 2016 graduate of South University with High Honors for a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, I graduated from Saint Leo University Cum Laude with my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (2013), and an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts (2012).  I spent four years in the Navy as a Master-at-Arms (Military Police) another 3 as a Program Support Assistant for a Government Law Enforcement Agency, am currently Security for the Navy, and an aspiring writer.

I have been diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive type), General Anxiety, and Dysthymia (a long-term, low-grade depression).  I find that each affects my life in different ways. The ADHD really gets me in regard to my writing.  I'm always working on some kind of writing, though I have yet to finish anything. I'm sure we all have those things; things we really want to do, but just have so many ideas we have a hard time staying on track. Currently, I'm working on a piece of non-fiction revolving around sexual assault and harassment. I'm going to try really hard to follow through with this one.

I chose "Anxietista" as the name of my blog because, well, to be honest, I was trying to be clever and pick something attention-grabbing, but also because I wanted something that reflected my life and the stories I would tell here.  And while my Anxiety is not who I am, it does influence my day-to-day decisions and therefore, a significant part of me.  And I'm not afraid to talk about it.  I will delve into that more in a later post.

I want this be a different kind of blog than you usually see. By that, I just mean it won't be a themed blog.  I won't be talking about just one subject and most blogs that I have read usually stick to a specific topic: cleaning, kids, family, cooking, etc.  I won't always be talking about Anxiety.  I won't always talk about mental health.  Sometimes I will discuss my family, my children, police wife stuff, and probably sometimes totally random things.  But everything I discuss will be from personal experience, and with it being personal, that means Anxiety will likely be a part of the situation, because my anxiety is a part of my life: thus, Anxietista.  I will however, promise right now, that I will try and never discuss politics.  My opinion on politics, is just that, my opinion.  And we all see enough of everyone's political opinions on Facebook, twitter, etc.  But, I'm still human, and that's why I say I will try and keep that topic off of my blog.

Thanks for visiting my page!  I hope you'll enjoy what I have to say and reading my stories!