“I Avoided Facing My Mental Illness for Decades. The Pandemic Changed That” by Jaquira Diaz is the article I found that helped me expand my understanding of who she is. This article is a narrative autobiography about Diaz’s mental health and how she was confronted with it due to being quarantined. In this piece Diaz talks about her first episode of substance-induced psychosis. It was during her mid-20’s when her father and her stepmother found her experiencing paranoid delusions, she believed that someone tried to poison her and that they were after her. After being taken to the doctors, Diaz went through more hallucinations and had to be sedated. She started writing Ordinary Girls soon after this episode, due to her getting the treatment that she needed. Writing about her previous obstacles in the memoir actually contributed to Diaz finding herself again. Throughout reading this article, I got to grasp the significance of the mental experiences Diaz has been through and how it’s what builds her writing. Her ability to write is what truly helps Diaz find herself and meaning to keep living. I believe this is a reliable source because it is written directly by Jaquira Diaz and was published recently in March of this year. 

Díaz, J. (2021, March 3). I Avoided Facing My Mental Illness for Decades. The Pandemic Changed That. Time. from https://time.com/5942112/mental-illness-covid-19-jaquira-diaz/.