I first had depression and anxiety when I was 12 years old. My mom passed from cancer & a brain tumor. It took several years to get better. I dealt with more episodes of depression too, dealing with some big life changes-a move, dad remarrying and gaining a stepfamily, a toxic bf.. my doctor prescribed an antidepressant and also counseling. Counseling and faith, friends, and family have really been so necessary for me.
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#mental health #inspiration #hope #depression #anxiety #submission #Faith
The mental health industry NEEDS to improve. I heard about NAMI after 3 incidents with the mental health industry, and the struggle that it put me through. I hope that by using art and writing from a first hand account, change can happen.
It seems to be a taboo to talk about anxiety, depression, and what is a normal way to act. I assert that speaking out about it is critical to putting a human face on a broad term and ultimately saving each other.
There must be a healthier middle ground between suicide and quieting revolutionary brilliance. I am driven to spread awareness and to bring about that middle ground.
Those who experience a change in their mindset need to be encouraged to explore these thoughts in a peaceful place surrounded by nature. Patients can NOT be locked in a white room and threatened to be removed from their family for a longer time IF they speak their minds about a new world they envision for themselves and the nation.
It is not easy to speak out about this issue, so possibly at least one person may see that those who have been caught up in this system have something extremely valuable to say and express, and they are NOT just crazy.
This drawing is a relic from that time of my life, shortly before being locked up. DO NOT FOLLOW the path designed by an elite group that discourages critical thinking, and speaking out about a world that benefits a few, and hinders the true expression of the many.
I hope to never go there [MENTAL HOSPITALS] again because of the lack of communication and the serious under-funding of the mental health industry. The hospitals give everyone who is misunderstood a huge risk of slipping in beneath the cracks, and being over-medicated, especially those who wish to communicate humanity’s wonders.
-Andrew Kaminski, 2016
My journey with mental health has not been an easy one. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2011. I was constantly having panic attacks at bight time which prevented me from sleeping. I finally decided that it was time to get the help I very much so needed. I did, and every since then I can better manage my mental health with the tools that my therapist has given me. There is light and hope even after the darkest of storms. Keep fighting ❤️
Sometimes the trauma we experience is not definable in terms of scientific research or assessments. Sometimes depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues are never actually diagnosed but somehow those of us who experience these issues deal with them on a daily basis and find inspiration and hope in our communities and inside ourselves.
I, like many others, have experienced multiple traumas in my life including rape, abandonment, intimate partner violence, a diagnosis of a “terminal” disease, homelessness, and drug addiction. Yet, somehow, I have made it through these experiences and found help along the way. Not from the system of care (as many of us know, the system of care is not really designed to “care”), I found help in the support and love from others who have also experienced similar things. It is their courage and compassion that gave me the strength to keep moving forward. It is their determination and insight that helped me work through the pain and fear.
I am forever grateful for those who guided me along the way. Your support will never be forgotten. Your support helped me to not only find a new way to live but to follow my passion and help others. Even though I have been dragged through the mud, I know my worth and value has not changed. Today, I am working on a PhD. and hope that the work I do, the community bridges from research and academia to the real world I build, can help inspire others. May you find love and peace in your hearts
My names Chandel and I’m 22 years old. I suffer from depression, anxiety and anxious thinking. It is real. You feel alone ,lost, scared and worried ALL the time. I’m happy that there’s people who understand this mental disease, who actually want to help. This is good!! I’m also thankful for my mental health therapist who is helping with my depression and anxiety. I’m tired of suffering and being worked for no reason!!
#Curestigma
I have had severe depression and anxiety for 30yrs. On Nov. 14th I checked myself into a mental health hospital and was there for a week due to thoughts of suicide and not sleeping. I was itching and had never been that bad. My 21 yr. old daughter stole my debit card went to my banks atm and withdrew $250 dollars from my bank account and then a few days later totaled her vehicle. She is not living at home anymore. She is staying with her aunt. She has has problems all her life and has no sense of self worth. I have always tried to encourage her. She says all I do is put her down. I ask her to go to therapy with me or alone but she says no.I have been out of hospital 1 week and I feel like like I’m unraveling and can’t get this depression and anxiety under control. I am on [name of medications] 3 times a day. I’m going to my psyhiciatrist today again. I hope there is other meds that will help. Gotta go!
Will write more later. I’m lost!
My heart races in thoughts of what this pandemic is doing to peoples mental health and them having to isolate maybe all alone beside their caregivers whom also feel the same as well.
Myself having a lifelong chronic barriers of bi-polar, depression, social anxiety and even panic disorder have been able to find some sort of normalcy in the day to day living and tasks of life along side of the stigmas and inability to be be as some would say as “normal”, but who and what is that? Who are they and where is normal located? lol
At first during the start of the epidemic (pre-pandemic) period, I thought to myself wow this actually makes others now know and experience in this social distancing time the thoughts and feelings that people as I endure every day of our lives having disorders that now was forced upon humanity by origin still unknown, and it made me feel more apart of society in all the wrong ways!
I knew I should not feel happy that others are now feeling what I feel most of the time for decades now and it turned into an understanding and empathy for those that may have lost a job or two and have family to provide for and a wave of hopelessness hit me in those thoughts of all the people that may not know how to be able to cope with such loss and the empty sad feelings with despair in the loneliness in having to ask for government assistance, and even neighbors for basic needs to be met when just weeks ago our U.S. economy was booming and like a light switch it all got turned off and people are dying in every city.
It is my hope that those folks that need to reach out for support do so and are able to find things of support also right where they are at home whether it be faith building by reading encouragement books to pass the time, and learn to use positive stressors to beat the negative ones that come at us in our days and nights. Look up positive stressors online and see if some may work for you.
Sleep works only temporarily and then the more you sleep the more anxiety you feel when awake.
Try to keep as close to the same routine of awake time as before this crisis, and add on some things to keep your thoughts from going down on yourself and of life, because this crisis is only temporary and with your inner strength the light at the end of the tunnel will get closer and closer and everything soon will be back to your seemingly “normal” day to day stuff.
One last thing I’ll say is that no matter where you are in your ability or inability to rationalize your core being and accept this crisis and overcome it all, just know that you are definitely not alone and someone is thinking about you right now.
BE SAFE, BE DISTANT, BUT BE TRUE TO YOU AND WE WILL SEE THIS THING THROUGH.
David Holland / Sebring, Florida
Hi my name is Lisa I’m 26 But you all can call me Lovely Lady Lisa : I am a recovering Adult with Anxiety and Depression and would love to speak and raise awareness about mental health Awareness. I’m working on becoming a peer Advocate so let’s End the Silence. I am No Professional or license medical psychologist or psychiatrist or even A Trained therapist I am just a recovering peer who would like to spread awareness in my local community.
In my life I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and PTSD…. I have seen many therapists and taken many medications, but I am now FREE!
I’m not saying I don’t still have doubts and fears at times, but I am no longer controlled by them. I have learned how to fight back, I have learned a new way of thinking, and I have grown in faith and well.
I’m also not saying that I don’t believe that medications or therapists are needed in some circumstances, but that for me, as I believe would be true for many others there was a better way.
My story to what may have led to my issues: picked on/ignored/isolated by peer group, then rape for my 1st sexual experience at 16. I went away for college where I was sexually promiscuous almost in an OCD kind of way and always with the thought that sex was the only thing I was good for on this Earth. Followed by another rape, this time gang rape 8 guys. Caved to peer pressure with drugs, X, lots of alcohol. Then at an all time low a complete disregard for whether or not I lived or died.
Over the next few years ..Therapists, medications, marriage, kids …ups and downs of life and attempting to settle for a job that doesn’t suit my soul. I embarked on a new journey that let me to the discovery or rediscovery really, of the power of mind set …. The steps I took to recovery were not conventional and it was not easy, but it was worth it.
I would choose freedom from unwanted, negative, or fearful thoughts over any other kind of freedom any day.
It is possible, keep going!
Poem 33 Voluntary Work Helps My Life
VOLUNTARY WORK HELPS MY LIFE
I have been doing Voluntary Work for Many Years now.
My Mental Health Problems which are Also,
Mentioned about in my Poetry Book,
“SOME OF THESE MAKE SENSE, SOME OF THEM DONT,
BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT LIFE IS.”
Post Traumatic Stress, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
Depression not Clinical and Schizophrenia.
Pricing Books for a Local Hospice and working on the Till,
Another Charity Shop Pricing Dvd’s, Computer Games and CD’s.
Welcomer at a Cathedral, telling History,
from Roman Times to the Present.
18th Century Church near my Address, again talking History,
Which is what my Degree was in.
I got married for the second time at 38 to a very talented man, who teaches his craft to local students. We both came into the relationship with depression and anxiety, and bonded over our love of music, books, film, and an old story of a kiss we shared in high school. We opened a business together and developed a beautiful community of students and their families. This is not one of those stories that was a fairytale from the beginning and one day turned dark. We shared so many normal days, like most families, and there were beautiful days, too, but there was also an undercurrent of abuse that was there from the beginning. I learned years later in therapy that what I experienced was emotional abuse, which is a form of domestic violence. On the worst day, I also experienced sexual assault, although I wouldn’t fully feel what happened to me emotionally or physically until years later.