I originally started blogging in 1998 when I was sixteen years old and a junior in high school, I had been dealing with depression and anxiety since middle school and up to that point I had used writing poetry as an escape. My dad worked for a company that built computers and later he co-owned a local internet provider so we have always had computers in our house, and we have had the internet since 1996. My dad had given me a book on HTML in 1997 and I taught myself the basics and started my own website, blogging by hand. this was before wordpress existed. 

I soon found that expressing myself online was therapy for me, I found people who were as honest and open as me and I made a lot of friends who also owned personal sites or blogs. Many of whom aren’t around anymore. I couldn’t be as open as I was online, at home. My family didn’t believe I had anything mentally wrong with me, I was constantly told that it was all in my head. I had friends but with them I liked to pretend I was normal and have fun with them. Online I could be myself.

I continued to blog until 2009 when my computer crashed and I stopped but only because I had to. In 2014 I bought myself a laptop and I missed owning a personal/blog site so I decided to open Nocturnal Dreams and was happy and hosted for two years until the domain I was hosted at expired and my site went down.

When I moved to thislove.nu I wanted a fresh start with a new name, I chose Mental Affliction. Affliction is a state of grief or suffering. Mental affliction is a state of suffering that is internal. I can not think of better name for this blog, I have been dealing with internal suffering (depression, anxiety, ect) for a long time, I have used unhealthy methods to cope and for now this blog is my outlet just as writing used to be.

I blog because this is my outlet, my place where I can be myself and not be judged.