As told to Nicole Audrey SpectorOctober 10, 2025, is World Mental Health Day.I was the third of four children, each four years apart, and the only female. That last part wasn’t a good thing in my family. Girls, I was taught, were dumb. In my home, there was a hateful mantra directed at me: “Don’t be a dumb girl.” My family would shorten it to an acronym, “DBADG.” Anytime I did something that made me look feminine or weak, I’d hear those letters. My dad was an intensely angry man and was both physically and emotionally abusive to me. In fifth grade, I failed my Social Studies class. When he fou...

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