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I always felt like the odd one out—the awkward kid floating along the edges, trying so hard to belong. I bent and twisted myself into what I thought people wanted, shrinking my light just to feel seen. But with every mask I put on, I lost more of who I really was. Eventually, the weight of it all began to break me. Depression came first… then the addictions, each one numbing a piece of the pain until eventually I didn’t know how to speak. But one day, something inside me whispered—enough. I realized I’d been hiding the most beautiful, fragile parts of my soul.

So I made a choice: to stop burying those pieces of myself, and instead, pour them out.
I started creating—without rules, without perfection.

I collaged the chaos. I wrote down my feelings, raw and unfiltered. I painted without thinking, just letting it flow. And when I looked back at what I made—read the words, studied the brushstrokes, understood the meaning behind each torn piece of paper—I finally saw ME.
I remember saying to myself, so what if I’ve GONE MAAD?

That’s when it clicked.

This wasn’t madness in the way the world feared—it was freedom. It was truth and it was mine. That moment gave birth to the name, not just of a brand, but of a home for all the parts of me I’d once tried to hide: Gone MAAD—Madison Armstrong Alternative Designs.