Written by Fliss Baker Twitter is a wonderful thing! I’m four thousand miles away and I’m meeting the like-minded. For info I’m a writer, author, volunteer and guest speaker in mental health and I love it. Oh, and I have a diagnosis of bipolar. I receive ongoing professional treatment in an attempt to manage my depressive and manic cycles. I am also in recovery for an eating disorder. It’s important I introduce myself before my illness because as much as it rules my life at times, I will not let it define me.Read More →

Written by Kelly Risbey http://mentalhealthwarrior.com/ I’ve battled anxiety and depression on and off for almost 20 years. My anxiety started getting bad in high school and I started having panic attacks in my second year of university. This led to my panic disorder diagnosis and my first major battle with anxiety. Trying to manage school, maintain a good GPA, cope with panic attacks that happened during class, deal with endless anxiety issues, find support, and learn how to battle my panic disorder was exhausting, frustrating, terrifying. All I wanted was my life back. I wanted to go to class, take notes, listen to the lecture,Read More →

Written by David Sandum http://davidsandum.org/ People often ask me, “Have you always known you wanted to be an artist?” The fast answer is no. It wasn’t until many years after my first exhibit that I made a conscious decision to become one. I had originally planned to become a business consultant. During my senior year of college, however, my life started veering off course. I had trouble sleeping, cried for no reason, thought I would fail everything, and went to the emergency room twice, terrified I was having a heart attack because my chest hurt so badly. The doctors would tell me nothing was wrong,Read More →

Written by: Caroline CriadoPerez Journalist & Feminist Activist https://weekwoman.wordpress.com This is a blog I’ve been meaning to write for a while. I’ve held back mainly out of fear. I know that by writing this for public consumption, I’m giving more ammunition to those who seek to discredit me and dismiss everything I say as the irrational ramblings of an unbalanced hysteric. I also know that when they use this post to undermine my words, it will hurt me. But I feel like it’s my duty to write this, because there might be other people out there who have been struggling like I have, and don’tRead More →

Written by: Neely http://deardarlingsanity.com/ As a 24 year old female who has endured, suffered and been at the mercy of ill mental health I am inspired by campaigns by charities such as, Mind, Re-Think, and B-eat to talk. Having experienced discrimination, ignorance and stigma throughout my own struggles I truly believe that it is time to talk in order to reduce these negativities surrounding not only the topic of mental health, but also for those experiencing it. Through diagnosis after diagnosis I remain in recovery for a disorder best described as somewhere between Borderline Personality Disorder and a Dissociative Disorder. In my time I haveRead More →

By AIMEE LEE BALL http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/ To the casual observer, Danielle Hark was living an enviable life, with a devoted husband, a new baby and work she enjoyed as a freelance photo editor. But she was so immobilized by depression that she could barely get out of bed. Her emotional state could not be explained in postpartum terms — she had suffered from debilitating depression for most of her life, and ultimately received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder when her daughter was a year old. “I thought about killing myself for the first time in seventh grade,” said Ms. Hark, now 33. “I went from therapistRead More →

my depression story Alex

By Alex  Source: lifewellwandered.com Hi, I’m Alex and I have depression. I’m not depressed at the time of this writing. But I do have depression. It sucks. And it likes to strike at the most inopportune moments. Isn’t that how it always is? (note/TW: this is how I have experienced anxiety and depression, and sometimes still do) But first, Anxiety: I’m very open about my experience with anxiety. Mostly because I feel like it’s more accepted. Sure, it might debilitate me, cause my mind to spiral out of control, make me cry, make me sick, make me too afraid to leave my home sometimes. But itRead More →

by Kurt Cunningham http://www.citizenkurt.net/ I tried to end my life one night after having a wonderful fun-filled evening with friends. It was in November 2012 — I had a plan in place for months. Not one person had any idea what I was planning to do. After a series of life-changing events that began in 2009 and included the closing my once- successful business of nine years, and culminated with the death of my mother in August 2012 life just seemed unbearable to me. My finances were a mess. My health wasn’t great. And I couldn’t make a romantic relationship last more than a fewRead More →

By Marisa Lancione Published by Healthy Minds Canada Living with a chronic mental illness can sometimes feel like waiting for the other shoe to drop (hopefully it’s at least something stylish). Up until this point, I have distanced my writing from my present by focusing on my past. Well, I’m going to take a huge leap of faith and discuss the state of my current mental health. And the fact is, I’m struggling. I’ve been battling semi-regular panic attacks for the past 6 months. My first panic attack in years happened in March. As with most panic attacks, they happen at the most inopportune moments.Read More →

Four days before Orlando da Silva became president of the Ontario Bar Association this month he heard the news that comedic genius Robin Williams had taken his own life. “I imagined Robin Williams alone in his room, what went through his mind,” da Silva told TorStar News Service this week. “I can understand the thinking, I can understand the emotions.” The new OBA president has also lived with the torment of depression, the sense of bone-deep worthlessness and lacerating self-disgust. He came close, in fact, to taking his own life.Read More →