Over the last three years, I’ve strung together periods of time where I was clean from self-harm for a single day, an entire week, even ten months — only to relapse. It’s frustrating. But there’s no shame in that. Today though, I’ve reached a full year of being clean.
I wish I could write a letter to my younger self and tell her that she’s brave and smart and funny and good. I can’t, though, so I’m writing to you, to tell you exactly those things.
You can take back control of your life. You can talk back to the voice in your head and tell it to be quiet. You can get dressed and leave your home to go to work because depression isn't your boss. You can choose to ignore the things that people say. You can choose to keep going.
My depression was like getting stuck in traffic. I was there against my will. I was running out of fresh air. Everything was blurry. My thoughts and feelings were crossing and running around, and I didn’t even know if they were mine or someone else’s.
On March 28, poet and TWLOHA supporter Tyler Knott Gregson will be releasing his third book titled “Wildly into the Dark.” He describes the work as: “typewriter poems and the rattlings of a curious mind.”
There is a power we hold and a purpose we serve simply by showing up for one another.
You’ve gotten through every bad day you didn’t think you could get through. You’ve gotten through every night you wanted to kill yourself and every day you wanted to die.
With the 89th Annual Academy Awards taking place this coming Sunday, the TWLOHA team jumped on the opportunity to share some of their favorite films of the season. While all of our choices may not be critically acclaimed, it is a collection of cinematic works that address a myriad of inspirational journeys and thought-provoking topics.
Our hope is that by highlighting these stories of human struggle, emotion, and triumph, we can share the connection between TWLOHA’s message of hope and film’s ability to make us feel and relate on a deeper level.
This piece is for the girls, the boys, the men, the women, and the non-binary human freaking beings of the world. This piece is for anyone who has ever felt like their struggles and their pain doesn’t “count” because they don’t “look sick.”
Secrets so often are associated with shame. In keeping these pieces hidden, I feel like I would be endorsing the view that mental illness is something to be ashamed of and it’s just not.
Hope can be hard to hold onto when, in the course of our efforts, we face inevitable challenges like insurance coverage cutting out early — for many folks, this may even happen repeatedly. When fighting against life-threatening mental illnesses, this extra effort can be exhausting.
Sign up for our newsletter to hear updates from our team and how you can help share the message of hope and help.
Join our list