Since it is @BlackInMH #BiMHStories day I share that I started undergrad at 33 because at 29 I escaped the only life I knew until that point—as a Jehovah's Witness in a traveling missionary family—& started my life completely over with only ONE phone number in my phone. 1/ https://twitter.com/manithegarcia/status/1309285706053955584

Why 1 phone number? The cost of leaving Jehovah's Witnesses was the loss of my ENTIRE social network (family, wife, friends, EVERYONE). The trauma of that extreme loss is indescribable. The phone number was for a sign language interpreting agency I contracted w/ since my teens 2/

I had learned sign language in my last missionary assignment & learned that though I was not allowed to go to college I could "cheat" by interpreting college classes. So I did that for 10 years in colleges all around the NYC area. FINALLY, I had access to SO MANY new ideas

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My "strategy" was to ask professors for course material to prepare for my work, then also to meet with them to discuss the material. I didn't know what office hours were & was surprised how excited they all were to invite me for weekly discussions . 4/

Looking back I tear up every time because I learned SO MUCH from those professors, who probably thought I was a student doing work-study. I learned life-sustaining skills: how to use a computer, how to make a resume & over letter, how to run a business, & about psychology 5/

Cracks were forming in my belief system due to exposure to ideas & people I would never have been able to access without a college degree. Having a rare marketable skill as an ASL interpreter gave me that access. I savored EVERY SINGLE experience that taught me new things. 6/

In this story I shared with @storycollider I discuss the FINAL crack in my old belief system. I hurt a very vulnerable person, something that still haunts my heart with pain & strangeness, since that experience freed me. Scroll to 21:22 for my story: https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2020/2/26/leap-of-faith-stories-about-finding-and-losing-faith

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I moved to NYC when I was 30, started a rock band, & started learning how to actually be Mani. Those were EXTREMELY difficult years due to the trauma of such an extreme loss. My mental health deteriorated to the point that I was suicidal, so I checked myself into the hospital 8/

That hospital stay SAVED ME, especially ONE conversation with the head Psychiatrist who convinced me that if I tried to rip out all the parts of me that were in pain or that I didn't like... there would be NOTHING LEFT. He convinced me to have compassion for my WHOLE self 9/

He convinced me that it wasn't only the parts of myself that I judged as "good" that were important. ALL OF ME was important. My discharge plan included therapy & medication. I'm still in therapy & was on every kind of medication imaginable for YEARS. Gradually I improved

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I knew I had to feed my mind with new ideas, fast, or I would never heal the way I wanted to. I applied for Stony Brook University because I wanted to research & understand HOW people could be so deeply influenced by beliefs that they could cut off their own family.

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I shared a lot about my academic journey during @BlackInNeuro #BlackInNeuroWeek here: https://twitter.com/manithegarcia/status/1288509229330923520.

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I am STILL struck that it was ONE professor's belief in ME and my ideas that eventually led me to my #BlackInMentalHealth work. I wanted the knowledge & credentials to complete the "model of healing" I introduced in the project he helped me start: https://vimeo.com/13969632 

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Now I work as a trauma, depression, & anxiety therapy specialist. I was just hired at a training clinic to become a specialist in OCD tx also. I LOVE my work! I love my community rooted research on parkour & mental health & language-based exclusion & deaf mental health

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It has been a LONG journey to land here with the BEAUTIFUL @BlackInMH team & all of you. I call you "fam" often because you ARE my chosen family. In my story I mentioned ONE person, at a particular time in my life, that had a MAJOR impact on my life journey & mental health

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There were the professors who had me in their office hours ONE BY ONE, who all realized at some point that I was DESPERATE for college education so helped me. There was the ONE vulnerable person I hurt that gave me the courage to lose it all & gain myself in the process

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There was the ONE psychiatrist who convinced me that my pain & the parts of me that I didn't like yet were ALL a part of me & needed to be embraced fully if I was to TRULY and DEEPLY heal.

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There was the ONE professor who believed in me & my ideas, giving me the courage to tell my story & develop my ideas during MY FIRST SEMESTER as an undergrad. There was the ONE therapist who told me I would be a great therapist.... etc. etc. etc.

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Eventually it was the ONE tweet by @ZoriAmber that we should have a week like #BlackInNeuroWeek for mental health, followed ONE by ONE by other team members joining in to form our @BlackInMH team that came up with this incredible week allowing me to engage with all of you

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My point: each & every ONE of you MATTER so much more than you may ever be able to imagine! Even ONE interaction with another person has the power to dramatically impact their mental health for the good and/or bad. I am so grateful for ALL of you. With deep love, keep going! /end