Laughing at a Dump Truck Full of Dead Babies "What's worse than a dump truck full of dead babies?" my teenage niece asks me suddenly. I shake my head without a clue how to respond. "Unloading them with a pitchfork," she answers with perfect deadpan timing. I laugh. I laugh so hard tears fill my [...]
Know thyself?” is the title of an article I read a few months ago, and that title has become the paradox of my life. My name is Stephanie, I was born in Honduras, mother of two beautiful boys, with a great job, and yet it’s hard for me to define myself as a survivor. Let’s [...]
BIPOLAR DINOSAUR Having a bipolar disorder is like keeping a pet dinosaur. You live your life everyday doing everyday things, while out of the corner of your eye, you keep an eye on your dinosaur. Let me give you an example. In the car, you buckle up your dinosaur into the back seat. Driving along, [...]
Stigma Fighters has an official YouTube Channel! It's a place where you can share yours stories about living with mental illness in a video format. You might be thinking: Sarah, how can I send you my story? Well, here's how! Made a video telling your story. Make sure it is a maximum of five minutes long. Send [...]
Living for Mental Health Awareness! It’s Time to Normalize the Elephant! By Emily Wu Truong (吳怡萱) The subject of mental health is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Many often choose not to seek help in fear of becoming marginalized and ostracized by friends and family. As a result, [...]
My name is Aileen. I was born in Hazard, Kentucky. I was five years old when I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and ADD. At a young age I felt different from my peers at daycare. The kids would be running around and playing on the swing sets while I would be alone most of the time [...]
My memories of the past several years are smeared, streaky and ghosted like an underdeveloped Polaroid. They are a part of my story and yet seem foggy and distant, the narrative of another person. It’s almost as if I’m the omniscient storyteller, the voiceover for a character in a movie I can replay in my [...]
The only comprehensive study of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan was published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Charles Hoge in 2004. This study suggested that those who served in the Iraq War had an “estimated risk” for PTSD of 18%, and those who served in [...]
Getting Wet by Rory Bristol There’s nothing like being afraid of the element that consists of 71% of both your own body and the planet you live on. Water. It is evil. It is full of germs, and wetness. It is gross to the extreme. I am able to get in the hot tub. I [...]
Suicide is a serious topic, culturally taboo, that most people fail to recognize what it truly is. We are the generation that is open to differences, but when it comes to mental health and understanding suicide, we are all human. It’s a concept that is pushed aside and forgotten about, but suicide is relevant in [...]