NEW MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY STORIES
Now What?: Suicidality and Planning for an Uncertain Present
When I exhibited symptoms of C-PTSD and OCD, I was afraid and lost. I survived multiple major depressive episodes, all of them including suicidality.
Call Out Each Cloud by its Silver Lining: Life with Depression & Anxiety in India
Whenever I’d gone through stages of major depression or anxiety as a young teenager, all I’d hear was that I was stupid, lazy, and unambitious. Imagine being judged by your symptoms and not by your illness.
MORE MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY STORIES
How to be an Active Listener
A rising number of college students are seeking treatment at campus counseling centers for serious mental health challenges. Our video features the powerful listeners from Cogwell@Penn. Watch (and learn) how they skillfully role-play as active listeners when presented with a variety of stories from friends in need.
You Just Can’t Talk to Crazy People: Bipolar, Depressed, Recovering
My psychiatrist became so annoyed with my theological nonsense that he abruptly stalked out of one session, exclaiming, “You just can’t talk to crazy people.” I sent him a note later, in which I informed him that I could talk to crazy people, so that was his problem, not mine.
Learning to Live in the Moment with Schizoaffective Disorder
Around age fifteen or sixteen, I began experimenting with drugs. I can tell you that this was, and always will be, the beginning of an ultimately fascinating journey that I call life with a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder.
How Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals Helped Me Cope with my Depression and Suicidal Thoughts
I am determined to love and live intensely and fearlessly because, as Audre Lorde said, betraying myself into silence will not protect me.
Marriage and Mental Illness: The Ups and Downs
When you think of married life, what comes to mind? Are you in complete bliss or just plain miserable? Maybe you’re floating somewhere in between.
Treatment Resistant Depression: My Experience with Countless Interventions
I endured this routine for so long: try a new medication to alleviate my treatment resistant depression and either feel horrible or feel absolutely nothing.
ORIGINAL MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY FILMS
Cumulative PTSD for a Police Officer After 9/11
This video features Officer Ron Griffith, formerly of the NYPD. After 9/11, Ron’s personality shifted. He became a controlling, angry person. He says he wasn’t aware of this change until his family left him, and all he was left with cumulative PTSD.
The Homeless Gospel Choir, Punk Rock, and My Mental Health Journey
I started writing songs about my feelings and sharing them with audiences throughout the country as a touring musician, under the name The Homeless Gospel Choir.
Bipolar Disorder Videos on YouTube
If you’re living with bipolar disorder, or you have a friend or family member who has this diagnosis, then these bipolar disorder videos on YouTube will be great mental health resources. At OC87 Recovery Diaries, we seek to #buststigma around mental illness by...
MENTAL HEALTH PODCAST
Episode 18 – Libby Parker; Changing the LGBTQ+ Mental Health Landscape
Mx. Libby Parker, MSS, LSW is an outpatient therapist and manager of Einstein Health Network’s PRIDE Program, which coordinates and supports various services designed to meet the unique needs of LGBTQ+ identified patients.
Episode 17– Bipolar Disorder, Family, and Love
The memoir “Gorilla and the Bird” discusses how bipolar disorder affects work, family, and relationships. Podcast interview with Zack and his mom, Cindy.
Episode 16 – Comedian and TV Personality Paul Gilmartin on Podcasting, PTSD, and Coping with Trauma
Host of The Mental Illness Happy Hour, Paul Gilmartin has come a long way since doing stand-up comedy and hosting the TV show, Dinner and a Movie.
ESSAYS ON MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY
A Vain & Misguided Decision: Abandoning Schizoaffective Disorder Medication
I am trying hard to make good decisions. I see my psychiatrist regularly. I take my medication. I try to live a healthy lifestyle with schizoaffective disorder.
What it Feels Like to be Passively Suicidal and Not Want to Die
The passive suicidal thoughts are still there, but I have started to recognize that they are only powerful if I give them the power.
Repairing a Beautiful Life Damaged by Depression
When I finally saw a psychiatrist, she was surprised that I was still alive, having been afflicted with depression for so long without medical treatment.
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