Dear reader,

My name is Tina, but you can call me Stamatina.

I have always introduced myself as Tina, but in recent times, I have found greater resonance with my real name: Stamatina.

In Italian, Stamatina translates to “this morning”. To this day, I’m still unsure of what exactly it signifies, however. The only definition I’ve ever had was provided to me from my Greek grandfather, who told me that Stamatina means ‘the woman who stops disease’. I used to think this was rather ironic, considering the hardships I have endured through my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But I have come to reason that the cross I’ve carried doubles as a torch for both myself and other sufferers; illuminating the possibility of a life beyond suffering.

When I came face to one of my first OCD themes called “‘magical thinking” (wherein I believed I could become someone else by having the mere thought of them), I reasoned that the way to preserve my identity was to proclaim I AM STAMATINA over and over again until I “neutralized” the intrusive thought. This seemed to be a compulsion at the surface, but at the level of the subconscious, it may have been a way of me reclaiming myself spiritually…

Stamatina Daniilidis is the author and writer of her debut book SPLIT ENDS: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as a Mirror to Wholeness, which she published in August of 2024. She is also the writer and co-director of the short film SPLIT ENDS (inspired by her psychological memoir), which she released several months earlier with Propulse-toi.

Stamatina was born and raised in Laval, Quebec, Canada and studied Social Service at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, where she moved to in 2023. She is a recipient of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Foundation Citizenship Award and Bursary and volunteers for diverse animal rights initiatives in Montreal. In 2023, Stamatina spearheaded her own branch of animal rights-related activism, Incognito Animal Rights Protests, in her local community. She occupies a permanent full-time position as a street outreach and intervention worker with the YMCAs of Quebec for people experiencing homelessness and/or precariousness.

Stamatina has been featured on Amazon Canada’s Best Sellers and Hot New Releases for Anxiety Disorders and Anxieties & Phobias, and on Radio Noon with CBC’s Shawn Apel. She is also a consignment author for Indigo Books (Laval).