“There is no health without mental health; mental health is too important to be left to the professionals alone, and mental health is everyone’s business.” – Vikram Patel May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Happy Mental Health Awareness! We all know that this month of Mental Health Awareness has fallen on a crucial time. ……
Posts Tagged with mental illness
Addressing Mental Health Stigma in Academia
This topic warrants more time, research, and reflection, but I want to begin sharing my initial reflections here, due to some recent experiences. I’ve been baffled by the irony of mental health stigma in our communities. Especially in my locality for the past 9 years. Washington, DC has probably some of the most “depressed” or…
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!
I had these shoes for nearly five years, come this summer…. I got them during my medical leave that year, a few months after I attempted to take my life and landed myself in a psych ward of a hospital. The shoes became an integral part of my “survival routine,” since then. They have been…
The Silence Will Kill Us
“In the end we will remember, not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We are trained in our society to hide our pain and compress our fears. We are conditioned to share our happiness with everyone, yet keep our sorrow to ourselves, locked up…
“Out of the Darkness”: Take Three ….
Yesterday, I participated in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (AFSP) 11th Annual “Out of the Darkness’ Community Walk in Washington, DC. The event took place in front of the Lincoln memorial this year, a place with a lot of history, where many important and historic marches and movements have transpired. It was my third…
Preventing Suicide…..Harnessing the Power of “Storytelling”
“So you give me the choice between the rope, the gun, the blade, or poison. And blame these attempts upon the surrendered mind….” – 14 year old Elsa {Please Note: The language used in this post is not intended to create triggers, but rather to offer some insight on the brutal truth and reality…
Why I Run…
I have always enjoyed distance running. I was in track in middle school and would have joined in high school if I didn’t have tennis or soccer going at the same time. I ran the mile. I think I got 5th place at conference in 7th or 8th grade. That was good for me. I…