Wendy Williams leaves wellness facility, feeling ‘better than ever’
On Tuesday, the former New York City public school teacher, now 36, said she left her two daughters at home to make the trip.
She’d been suffering from a health condition that had left her with headaches, dizziness and weight gain. She said she believed she was going insane. She says she felt “fearful” that she was the object of ridicule.
“The past four weeks have been the hardest, emotionally, mentally, physically,” Williams said. “I feel great, but I’m not the same person. I’m better than ever.”
Wendy Williams has come to realize that the anxiety of her illness has made her more of a person than she was before her troubles began.
Her story has drawn national attention, prompting some to call for better public education about the effects of mental illness on individuals and on society. The media interest has also spurred social media, the world of social media, to do its part in helping Williams’ story. It has been shared by the Internet’s most influential news sites, including The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, CNN, Mashable, NewYork.com and The New York Times; it has been captured in a National Public Radio podcast; and it has been captured in a documentary movie by The New York Times that is running in theaters.
On Monday, Williams’ post garnered more than 13,000 Facebook likes and was shared more than 50,000 times. “To my amazing girls, to my parents, to the world,” she said.
But perhaps what’s most striking about Wendy is that, despite her public notoriety, she has been able to stay true to herself.
“I don’t let everything get me down,” she told the Associated Press. “I don’t let everything define me.”
As a child, she was teased relentlessly for being different. Her father, an educator, described her as an unusual kid who was awkward and sometimes a bit strange. But he also said she came from a good family and was, “a very nice kid.”
That description fit as well as any description could have. An only child, Williams was raised by her single mother, Beverly, after her father died when she was 14. The family had no formal religious beliefs to guide them. Beverly Williams loved her daughters and supported their growth. Her daughters had an array