Mbonde’s Musings
Welcome to my blog where I integrate the personal and the political, my academic and artistic self. As a Black feminist anthropologist-in-the-making, this is where I process how my lived experiences with motherhood and mental health intersect with my research interests and my professional identity as a writer and a scholar.
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Graduation SZN | Part 1
I am pleased to announce that I have officially completed the second year of my PhD program in Sociocultural Anthropology at NYU! In addition to coursework, I completed by first of three comprehensive exams which are considered a rite of passage and meant to test my knowledge before I undertake my dissertation research. This is the first step to transitioning from a PhD Student to a PhD Candidate. Although I am nowhere near to finishing…
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Post-COVID Fatigue
Today I emerged out of what has been a cascading wave of post-COVID fatigue after my recent experience being sick with COVID-19 for the first time. Although I was mostly recovered and tested negative almost two weeks ago, since then I have experienced a frustrating amount of lethargy. This made me face my worst fear second to experiencing COVID-19 induced psychosis, namely, enduring Long-COVID. A person is generally considered to be experiencing Long-COVID when the…
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New Therapist, New Me
Not too long ago, I began contemplating whether I needed to continue going to therapy. After a harmful situation with a therapist where I lost trust in the process, I took a hiatus exploring peer support groups and other self-care activities to maintain my wellbeing. Homebound while postpartum in a global pandemic, I re-established my baseline. On top of successfully walking a tightrope so as not to fall into mania or depression, I received an…
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Surviving COVID-19 and the Fear of Psychosis
Two years into the pandemic and I finally got sick with COVID-19. While being incapacitated in bed or on the couch was not fun, getting sick allowed me to face my worst fear. Out of all the things that could happen — respiratory problems, loss of taste and smell, or the chronic fatigue and persisting disability of Long-COVID — what I feared most about getting sick was a COVID-induced psychotic episode that would land me…
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When Your Blogs Appear on the Syllabus…
Almost a year ago, I started this blog as a challenge to myself to come out the of the proverbial bipolar closet in my personal and professional life after my last, most traumatic, and embarrassingly public episode. While I started this blog writing for an imagined audience, it was primarily an act of courage and self-love. I had no sense of the extent of this blog’s growing readership until this week. On Monday, I was…
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Nadia Naomi Mbonde 