Justine Wang is a writer committed to exploring themes of identity, feelings of loss, and retrospective regret. She also currently serves as an Associate Marriage Family and Therapist in the San Francisco community. She can be found on Twitter at @jstnewng.
“Do you have any history of mental illness in your family?”
I curl my fingers in my lap and glance up at the ceiling. An answer is ready on my lips but I hesitate; there’s always a chance that I don’t know the full truth.
“No,” I say. “Not that I know of.”
My mother and grandmother come to mind. If there is any semblance of neuroticism in me, it would definitely have been from one of them.
The psychiatrist smiles and scribbles on her clipboard. “No worries. I just have to ask.”