I Need Your Help With My Mental Health Project

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m tired of mental health awareness. Okay—hear me out. I'm happy we’re moving in a direction where we can openly talk about our mental health and people are generally positive about it. I’m glad so many of us feel safe to admit we struggle. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we still have a long way to go.⁠

The truth is, we’re comfortable talking about mental health, but we’re NOT comfortable talking about mental illness. “Mental health” is a vague enough phrase that we can often hold it at arm’s length without asking hard questions and still pat ourselves on the back. “Mental illness,” on the other hand, feels much scarier.⁠

I think the key to making it less scary lies in more than just being present. Saying you have a mental illness is a great first step, but I think our stories need to be told—more specifically, the stories of how we’re succeeding. Being mentally ill doesn’t have to mean you’re always down. It doesn’t have to mean you can’t live your life to the fullest. I think once people understand that our lives actually look a lot like theirs, a real conversation can begin.⁠

So, friends, I am asking for your help. I’m collecting stories from people with mental illness(es) and their successes. I will house the collection on a future website for anyone to browse. The responses will be anonymous unless you choose to include your name and/or social handle. As a thank you for your help, I’m offering the image in this post as a free phone wallpaper download.⁠

Link here for those interested, and I hope to read your stories very soon. 💖⁠