Reducing the stigma around mental health
By Patrick A. Roland I should have known I was in trouble when they started calling me The Sparkle King. About six weeks after the release of Unpacked Sparkle, I entered a New Year’s Eve dance on a large throne. 6 people, dubbed the Sparklettes, danced and swirled around me, Continue Reading
By Michelle Robinson Kindness costs nothing. Being kind to someone, or having someone show you kindness, gives you that warm glow, and a study has shown that kindness is also good for our mental health. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation has commissioned a study called “Kind Communities – A Continue Reading
By August Blair How Mental Illness Changed Me 1. I get tired easily Until I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, I was extremely paranoid and could not sleep at night. I was afraid someone was going to murder me. Sometimes even hallucinating for months at a time that dead people Continue Reading
By bipolaretaeus To say I’m very disappointed is an absolute understatement. Devastated. I haven’t tried to take my own life for a few years now and thought all was in control, however this weekend it all exploded and I ended up in A&E for emergency physical treatment. **** I have Continue Reading
By Nicola Anne I have a five-year old niece. She is absolutely stunning. She has gorgeous blonde curls, big blue eyes, and the most gorgeous pink lips. Friends, family, even strangers, often comment on these traits of hers. Pretty, Beautiful, Gorgeous “Aren’t you pretty?” they ask her. “Look at those Continue Reading
Stigma is all around us and can be found in many different places, taking many different forms. Some is very overt, from the person fired from their job. To the one verbally and physically abused by those close to them. Then there are the more subtle such as little jibes Continue Reading
By StayingAlive123 I relapsed this week and it has been hell. A combination of different things triggered it for me. There has been a lot going on that has been out of my control. Instead of working on the things I can control, I have been allowing this out of Continue Reading
By Alan D.D. I never felt okay with my body, my feelings, my mind or even the way I look in the pictures. I never liked anything about me, maybe only the fact that I could learn fast when I really liked the topic, except that made me a victim Continue Reading
By Ben I thought I’d share my own experiences with the dark sides of mental health and anxiety. I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder last year, aged 35, by a member of the IAPT team. This was during my initial phone call interview before volunteering for cognitive behavioural therapy. Continue Reading
By bipolaretaeus Having a diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder and being a mental health nurse comes with challenges. Without bipolar, it does anyway. I went into nursing because of my constant exposure to mental illness in my family, in me and some of my friends. I wanted, and still want, Continue Reading
By Bethany Hacker Fate and Pain An empty space; A cavernous void. A place where words echo For no one to hear. An invisible box Of undefined shape – Filled with the joys once shared And of sorrows unknown. A weight in the void – A weight so heavy, Only Continue Reading
By Anonymous Almost three months on from the lowest point for you in 7 years, we are starting to leave the depths of the valley. I will never forget that first night. That night you sent me to bed because I had been ill. The night that changed our relationship. Continue Reading