#HEAVYANDLIGHT 2018
Announcing #HEAVYANDLIGHT Lineup & Limited Presale!
You Don’t Have to Suffer for Your Art
You don’t have to suffer for your art. You don’t have to prioritize your creativity over your health. You don’t have to destroy your life because of a lie stigma wants you to believe.
Working It: Joel Leon on Using Storytelling to Cope With Mental Illness
Writing has saved my life more than once. It has allowed me the space and room to heal and to learn, and to also let go of the pain and hurt I may have clung to from my past. It doesn’t have to be New York Times worthy either—just something to help loosen the illness’ grip and get the clouds out of the way.
The Stigma of Heroin Addiction and the Expanding Epidemic
Nobody knows better than the mother of a heroin addict that stigma breeds death.
Working It: Vivian Nunez Shares the Importance of Challenging the Lies You’ve Told Yourself
Running my own business and going to therapy are two things that my family never expected from me as a first-generation Ecuadorean-American.
To Hope Is to Fight
My name is Michelle and I have Major Depressive Disorder. It’s severe and it’s recurrent. But I am not my depression, and my depression is not me. MDD is a part of my story, but it isn’t my identity.
Passage
Watch the short film written and directed by Tommy Harden.
Working It: Hannah Brencher Uses Her Story to Inspire Honest Conversations About Mental Health
My first run-in with depression was my first year after college. I was living in New York City and, at the time, I had no idea what depression was or how it could affect me.
Why I Stopped Drinking
My sobriety story isn’t typical. I wasn’t addicted to drugs or pills or alcohol. I wouldn’t say I had an “addiction” at all.
Name the Dream
Our friend Tonya Ingram shares her thoughts on new dreams for the new year.
Being Christian and Living With a Mental Illness
I’m writing about this because the stigma surrounding mental illness, especially in Christian communities, keeps people locked in prisons of shame, refusing to admit that they need help.
Illogical Truth
I want you to understand this: If you are in the pits of depression, if you are suicidal, if any of the above spoke to you, depression is lying.
