In the 1990's Collective Soul made a music video called "The World I Know." In the video, a man walks through the streets of New York City aimlessly in despair. He carries a briefcase and walks despondently in a black and white world with no hope. When I watched this man in the video for [...]
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 [...]
How I Found My Roar, and Gained my Power Back Fear flooded my veins when I ran into an old friend of my mother’s in a clothing store at the age of 13. My trembling body stared into his eyes, and while my head screamed “RUN”, my feet were frozen to the floor. It was [...]
Trigger Warning: Talk of suicide and intrusive thoughts. If you are struggling, please reach out to 800-273-TALK (8255) or online chat at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ It's been 4 years since I first posted publicly that I live with mental illness, 2 days after my dear friend died by suicide at Christmas. A force within me had to [...]
At dinner, my mom turns to my husband and says, as she has many times over the years, “I prayed against all the other boyfriends, you know. Every single one of them. Except you.” She pats his hand. He grins and gives her a fist bump. “Well,” I say, laughing, “I guess it’s not my [...]
My Name is Nicole. I am a mother to two beautiful little girls and I am a survivor, an advocate, and probably a lot like you. I also happen to have a mental illness called Bipolar Disorder. I think if I was a child growing up now rather than in the early eighties, I definitely [...]