The only way to reduce the stigma of mental illness, sexuality and trauma is through the open and honest sharing of our stories.
Do you have a story to share?
Everyone has a story. What's yours?
The only way to reduce the stigma of mental illness, sexuality and trauma is through the open and honest sharing of our stories.
Life with addiction and depression can be hard enough. But the stigma surrounding the two issues can increase the shame felt by the person afflicted to the point where recovery becomes much more difficult. For myself the feeling of being different from my peers was one of the hardest things to overcome.
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It's been hard getting up the courage to share but I think these days it's important we do.
I've battled anxiety for many years now, even when I was young all I can remember was obsessing about what others thought of me. In the last two year's I've lost my best mate to suicide, seen a marriage crumble and my self with it …
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Read MoreThis wasn’t easy for me to write. Partly because I am an intensely private person, and partly because it’s difficult for me to organize and articulate my thoughts. My words feel clumsy and inadequate …
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I wrote this poem whilst taking part in an 8 week residential recovery program, following an attempted suicide.
The poem outlines my life on a very personal level.
My emotional invalidation as a child, the death of my father at aged 9, sexual abuse by the policeman who lived next door and then my stepfather. My rebellion and promiscuous lifestyle as a teenager. It outlines the misdiagnosis over the years.
Read MoreI’m proud to say that I’m mentally ill.
That sentence probably made a lot of people squirm, which is an indication that we still have a lot of work to do regarding the stigma associated with mental illness. But I stand by my statement.
- April W
My story isn’t like a lot of other rappers. I didn’t grow up in the hood and join a gang and drop out of high school. I’ve never done drugs or partied until I blacked out. I’m a rapper because one day I found the words to express myself and I never looked back …
Read More"My self-harming was perhaps the addiction I struggled with most, because as I let go of my other disorders, I craved a sense of control. Control of the body has always been my coping mechanism. I can control what I do to myself even if I can’t control what others do to me..."
-Suzie Larson
"She used to doll me up as a girl when I was a child. Whatever her actions and reasons were at the time, it did not matter because what she did had messed up my identity of a boy and misled my sexual preferences. I struggled with my sexual identity and had problems accepting it even now as a gay man and I get depressed over it." - Sufyan Adli Supiani
Read More"In a perfect society, we would all come out unscathed. The trials and tribulations we face would roll off our backs like a spring rain and nothing would deter us from our potential. Sadly, this is not the case and often times we are dealt a hand that has nothing to do with our decisions but the decisions of those who have gone before us. I faced such a situation at a young age and as I grew I found myself standing on the cusp of a decision. Do I allow this revelation to continue to feast on my future, or do I dig into it, removing it from my life forever? "
- M. J. Deskovic
"I am still not the mother they spent their last 16 years with. My memory is non-existent, I forget everything constantly. My arms are always have a painful tingling through to my finger tips. I feel extremely anxious now, overwhelmed by anxiety. I drive myself crazy. With my twin’s hometown of Huxley we are slowly attempting to get back to life" - Megan Johnson
Read More"I roll to my side in search of my liquor, a sense of despair looms; my bottle looks empty. I grab the hefty 60 ounce bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin and pray that there may be just enough left for one shot. Thank God there is. I drain every last drop of the alcohol in my mouth savouring the burn on my tongue and the brief feelings of relief that arise. This was my daily scenario as I approached the end of my drinking career" - Ishaq Malik
Read More"You learn to dress and act and talk a certain way because that's what they want of you. But still I pushed back, defiantly trying to hang on to what I liked, the parts that made me ME" - Invisigoth Killswitch
Read MoreMy grandmother used to say to me, “Don’t ever worry about the things you’re already worried about, it’s the things you never thought possible that get you.”
I could never fault her with this quote, I still can’t ... - Erin Mahoney
"Being gay, in my bold opinion, is a grueling task. It consumes said person’s whole identity and from the moment they came out of the ‘closet’, they will forever be surrounded by that identity and that identity alone ..." Rinat Nur
Read More"On May 8, 2015, I was released from my fourth and final mental hospital. I had spent over half a year in them during the age of 14 due to self-harm and a suicide attempt. After two years of being put on God knows how many high dosage medications, it felt like my doctors and I had finally cracked the code" - Sam Wilson
Read More"Green eyes. Beard. Enchanting smile. Handing out bubblegums to children. My earliest memory of the molestation doesn’t even begin with unpleasant events ..." - Amour
Read More"I was two years old when my mother first abandoned me on my father’s doorstep, and five years old when I began to notice my mother’s abusive behavior. She would ignore me for weeks, pushing me away from her when I tried to hug her. The abuse seemed to grow stronger as I grew older. She would steal drugs from the nursing home she worked at and combine them with Captain Morgan and Diet Coke." - Sabrina Copeman
Read More"Back then, I was paralysed by anxiety and depression, staying awake all night unable to sleep the pain was unbearable. I kept on going, if only for the sake of what my family would go through if I were gone.
Aching from the inside out, even my skin hurt. I talked myself through each step to get through the day: one foot out of bed, open the blinds, open the door, walk to the kitchen, left foot, right foot. I lied to myself, promising if I could get through the day I could fall apart at night. Instead I found distractions to stay awake to the point of exhaustion until eventually I’d pass out, waking again the next day to repeat ... " - Lana Burns
"The knocking didn't let up after that and I said, 'I'm off to sleep now'. The voice at the door suddenly said, 'Let me in'.
I sat up slowly and I could feel the adrenaline starting to kick in and the hairs on the back of my neck were raised. Just to clarify the next move I should make after that, I asked him the simple question, 'Why?'
There was no response ..." -Em
"At the age of 17 I suffered an episode of severe psychotic depression. At that age I had no idea what it meant to have a mental health problem; no one had ever told me about mental illnesses and I didn't have the words or knowledge to make sense of what was happening to me ... " - Jasmine Amber
Read MoreEveryone has a story. What's yours?
By reading someone else's story we get to live their life, at least a little bit. We face their problems with them, experience their joys and disappointments, and feel what they are feeling. We get to see the world through their eyes and see life from their perspective.
The Share Your Story Project aims to provide a platform that will help to reduce the stigma of mental illness, disability, physical injury, trauma, sexuality and alternative lifestyles. Only through open and honest communication can we ever hope to become a more understanding and inclusive as a society.
If you would like to contribute your story, please send me an email. Ideal length of your submission is between 500 & 2000 words. Please include one photo, a short author bio, a suggested title, and a website or social link if you like. Alternatively, tell me if you want to remain anonymous.
Please make sure that your piece is original and has not been previously published elsewhere. I may ask for revisions/tweaks of editing, grammar etc.
