Let me be serious for just a minute: I had anxiety and depression issues as far back as I can remember. It seemed normal to me at 5 years old, to walk around my room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, or telling my mother that I worried that her smoking was going to cause a fire and burn down the house. I was fun to be around, most of the time…No really, I was.

Like a lot of people, for decades, I went along my not-so-merry way, getting help from doctors & meds here & there. Then 9/11 happened. I lived 7 miles from the World Trade Center. There wasn’t enough therapy or drugs to keep me from having anxiety all day every day and panic attacks all night every night for 6 months.

I’ve now been therapy and meds free for 20 years, though, there is nothing wrong with either and no shame in needing them.

It is my absolute honor to use my “other background” as a comedy performer and humor writer (one-woman shows, books, newspapers) to deliver these skills that not only got me off of my anxiety and depression merry-go-round, but led to transforming my entire life. Yes, my goal is to help keep others—students, educators, corporate folks, medical personnel et al— from years and years of unnecessary suffering, but also to guide them on the path to their own flourishment. (How is there no red line under “flourishment”? I’m pretty sure I made it up.)

Lori Shandle-Fox is a native New Yorker, and NYU graduate. For the past 15 years, she has lived in the Raleigh, NC area with her husband, Lloyd, and their teen triplets.