Art as an outlet

 

Everyone copes with their own mental health issues differently. For me, clearly it is writing, (or on other days, screaming into a pillow). I like to believe that creating an outlet for my anxiety is kind of therapeutic. It can definitely be cathartic, and it helps me understand it better.

Then the days come where I feel like I’m all alone in this, and I know I’m not. On these days it’s nice to have a reminder that other people get it.

Anyways, here’s a bunch of beautiful art about mental health.

Let’s keep talking: Part One

 

“You’re not alone” e-card by Claire

A few weeks ago I promised to keep the conversation about mental health and stigma going beyond just one day a year. I asked for submissions from other people – prose, poetry, art, anything – expressing their own experiences with mental health.

I received more than I thought I would (re: none), and am going to continue accepting submissions and posting them in groups.

This first group I am going to attach a theme, which I found in each piece:  you are not alone. So many more people than you would believe live with mental heath and struggle with it daily. These pieces exposed to me the strength in each individual as they thought they struggled alone, and in writing them, perhaps realized they weren’t.

A trip to the doctor’s office, and a dose of stigma

Recently I went to the university health services to talk with a doctor about some problems I’ve been having.  The past several weeks I have been struggling with sleep. This is common with me when I have a lot of stress in my life. Right now that includes working full time, trying to find an internship so I can graduate and taking part time classes to finish my English minor. Also fighting for more attention from me are my money problems, my self-esteem, the fact that my social life is in shambles, trying to find a sublet for my apartment, trying to figure out moving in a few months, figuring out when I can do laundry next, if I can afford to groceries next week. The list goes on and on.

Let’s keep talking

“Trapped” by Akujixxv

Last week mental health awareness permeated social media on January 28th. Bell’s #LetsTalk campaign raised over $6 million for mental health. This is absolutely amazing but the conversation about mental health and stigma should be happening more than one day a year.

Inspired by messages and comments from friends and family alike, I am determined to keep the conversation about mental health going, but I can’t do it alone.

Something about myself

Well, if I’m going to do this blogging thing properly it means to divulge a lot of things about myself that I normally don’t want to acknowledge myself, or let other people, (particularly all you strangers!) know. Alas, life is never what we really thought it would be or want it to be.

To begin, I am Kimber, 22 years old, living in Halifax, NS attending University of King`s College for journalism. This you know if you already know me at all, or hit up my About page.

The juicy stuff comes now.