More than anything, I want to help other people around me. Ever since I was young, I’ve always helped others before helping myself. I was under the impression from a young age that if you gave yourself self-love or self-care that you were selfish. This is unfortunately the conditioning that we receive at a very [...]
A Mental Health Autobiography I'm never certain how much of my own experiences are unique to me, and how much of my experiences are universal, shared by everyone: a part of the human condition. Sometimes I think that our feelings are all more or less the same. Sometimes I think it's just me. Sometimes I [...]
I believe that, at birth, the bond between us and our parents is the strongest that it'll ever be. It's one of the only raw and unadulterated moments in our lifetime. Where uncertainty doesn't exist: there are no filters switched on that day. Words aren't needed - our eyes tell it all. A gentle smile [...]
For a bizarre fucking reason growing up, I was taught to bottle my feelings so that I could reserve my place in 'real-man' heaven. I always believed that crying was an expression of inner weakness which I needed to contain so I could keep up the appearance of this red-meat eating, lumberjack who was impervious [...]
As advocates for mental health and help seeking, we often discover that a great chasm separating us from help is gouged open by fear and shame. Treatments have become more effective, and more people in our community voice their support, yet it seems that too many people who need help slip through the cracks and [...]
MORE THAN THE MADNESS My name is John Kaniecki and I suffer from bipolar disorder. Please allow me to present my credentials. I have been hospitalized nine times three of them being committed. I have spent over a year locked away. I even spent a night in jail. When I first started taking the medicine [...]
Hello again, This is a companion to a piece that I penned on October 27, 2016. I would like to thank The Mighty for publishing my original post. The editors give a much-needed voice to the voiceless. The publishers at The Mighty have given a lost soul like myself a forum to tell my own [...]
Safety from Stigma Learning how recovery, addiction, and mental illness are so intertwined has been eye-opening in my three years of sobriety. Being able to see how my depression opened the door to the depths of addiction in my life now makes perfect sense. The stigma that comes with both addiction and mental illness is [...]
Me Vs. My Eating Disorder: How I realized that I was sick and learned to differentiate myself from my sickness By Sparklle Rainne My eating disorder began when I was only eight years old. It began with bulimia, but my diagnosis has changed multiple times throughout my life - I've been diagnosed with bulimia, anorexia, [...]
Well, it’s back; the dreaded beast known as mania. I’m in the midst of a relapse and I’m so upset about it. I know exactly how it happened this time. I got sick with the flu and bronchitis about a week and a half ago. And because I was so overextended work-wise, my body took [...]
