Tanita Allen, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease in 2012. She shares her personal journey of coping with the emotional and mental challenges of her diagnosis.
Transcript
What I wish I did differently was I wish I would have gotten care for my mental health when I was first diagnosed in 2012. It was quite a diagnosis.
I’m the first person in my family to be diagnosed with Huntington’s, so this was quite a shock. And this was very, very traumatic for me — this experience, my whole experience of even just being diagnosed as a woman of color.
It was definitely a problem because I had a lot of people telling me that Black people just don’t get Huntington’s.
So, I would say that in the beginning, I would have been more active with my mental health as far as dealing with anxiety, depression, and the array of emotions that came about as a result of my diagnosis.
So, I would have had earlier intervention, and I would have been more vocal about what my needs were.
