I was given up at birth, which my brain equated to be unwanted. But those very obvious outward differences don’t capture my inner experiences and feelings. I’ve learned to acknowledge that gratitude because I know my life could’ve turned out vastly different. And when I think about what adoption looks like from the outside, I am. Sure, from an outsider’s perspective, I should be happy, grateful, and filled with an overwhelming amount of love. I’ve only started to unpack the effects adoption has had on my mental health in the last couple of years. I was adopted when I was nine weeks old from Colombia by a single mother who has put me first for almost my entire 34 years of existence. To acknowledge these challenges and combat stigma through talking about them, TWLOHA’s very own Sarah Ellis wrote about her experience as an adoptee. We know those who are raised with their non-biological families have a suicide attempt rate four times higher than their peers. Here in the US, 7 million people are adopted with one in every 50 children being an adoptee.
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