When you're a teenager one of the last places you expect to end up is on the psychiatric unit of a hospital. Yet that's where I found myself one day when I was 15. My Mother and I had gotten to the emergency department at the city hospital pretty late at night from what I [...]
I took a bottle of pills when I was fifteen. It wasn’t the right kind, or maybe it was, depending on the desired result. But I was trying to die and I didn’t, so I guess it was the wrong or right kind of pills. I took them to drown out the guilt, the anger. [...]
Once upon a time, there was a woman who recognized a need for a centralized place where people affected by mental illnesses could come together and tell their stories. That woman's name is Sarah Fader, and her international non-profit organization is called Stigma Fighters. A grand community was built from such an idea that encouraged [...]
In Death I Dream of You Yet See me dying, withered and decaying between crisp white sheets. I wait for the prick of the needle. It comes and the warm reprieve takes me again. I run. Dark and empty city streets. I stop, my heart pounding and resounding in my head. Thin pools of water [...]
Saying Goodbye to Dark Sources “But love is not a transaction. Love is transcendent—it transcends language and material possessions and can be shown only by our thoughts, actions, and intentions.” -Joshua Fields Millburn This past winter, I found myself sitting in my car on the verge of ending it. I could go to the corner [...]
Recently, the hashtag #cut4zayn went rampant on Twitter. There were graphic images of teens actively involved in self harm. The imagery was alarming and triggering to many of us mental health activists. Marisa, the content manager for Stigma Fighters Canada and writer at Mad Girl's Lament reached out to me with an idea. As someone who struggled with self harm for [...]
Yesterday was a particularly intense day for Stigma Fighters and mental activists throughout the world. #Cut4Zayn trended on Twitter after Zayn Malik left the band One Direction. Teens posts graphic images of self harm in response to Malik's absence from the band. The images were explicit and painful. Stigma Fighters responded to the global event [...]
February 14, 2013 I finally got home after a 15 hour day managing several restaurants. It was around 10pm. I fed my cats, ate something and got showered. I watched the news for a few and then got into bed and turned out the light. I guess it was 10 minutes and I had this [...]
