by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 22, 2025

Belizeans have confronted many life challenges during the economic depression of the COVID-19 pandemic; and despite the post-pandemic recovery, with the many new forces buffeting Belizean society, some may find their sanity threatened by anxiety, manic depression, trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder. They may find solace, comfort, and a path to healing and empowerment in a new book that has been released, I Want This For You, by Belizean author Candice Garay Ayala.

_{Candice Garay Ayala}

Born in Belize, with a childhood and early life that was spent in our post-Independence society, Candice was forced to confront mental health stigmas and cultural expectations for an East Indian/South Asian woman, and her resilience in the face of these traumas has shaped her life. She battled different types of trauma, violence, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Disorder. She found she had become neurodivergent and felt very vulnerable.

Her altered states of mind manifested themselves in physical behavior that others found aberrant, and she was troubled by insecurity and self-doubt. Through it all, she found the courage to be true to herself, and this was her path to relief and self-healing, to redefine her relationships with others she cared for, and to become inured to unhealthy external forces.

Hers is an auto-biographical account of her journey through five years of therapy and her struggles against forces which threatened to devour her soul. This is what she wants for the reader, for her experiences to serve as a guide for those not inclined toward introspection and contemplation, for the reader to get in touch with their inner self and to reaffirm who they are meant to be.

Garay is a writer by profession, but this is her first major work published under her name; her previous writings were published in online magazines. Her habit of keeping a diary of her therapy sessions served as the raw material for her book, the distillations of her troubled mind.

Now that she has overcome the first hurdle of publishing a book, she has already embarked on a new project, a children’s book based on her childhood fantasies, which she hopes to complete by October this year.

Today she is happily married with two children, and lives with her family in Minnesota, USA. For her, there is still no place like home, Belize, and she makes an effort to return whenever she can.

Garay’s book is available in digital Kindle edition on AMAZON for USD$8.99 in the month of May (Mental Health Month) only; beginning June 1, it reverts back to the original price of USD$14.99.