Thanks for Sharing

By Amrita Tripathi

It’s not easy living through — or with, rather — some of these issues. The black beast, anxiety, panic attacks, these can all weigh us down and sometimes feel like an invisible veil of sadness that nothing can penetrate.

Art by Pig Studio for The Health Collective

It’s times like those we need to hold on…helpful to say have some hope things will get better, but alas, finding the hope in those times is like the quest for the holy grail…except you don’t have the energy for it.

Hard as that is, it strikes me as even harder sometimes to talk about it. So often mental health issues take on that hue a ‘moral’ failing, or some sort of ‘weakness’, some sort of shame is felt at not being able to be light-hearted or to traipse along, whistling at rainbows and such. That’s all bogus though, isn’t it? (But how do you argue with your mind, or reason with it, when your mind is acting against you, is one major issue?)

That’s what so many of our friends here on the health collective are showing us — how they cope, what they think, how they feel, how they struggle. The honesty is important. And brave.

And important. Thank you for sharing your stories and struggles. Here’s to some solidarity, some community — some glimmer of hope that it’s alright. You/we don’t walk alone.

We absolutely love the work of @TheRestlessQuil (and if you haven’t checked out her storify and other tweets on BPD, pl do when you get a chance)… Couldn’t resist a chance to share this…