Stories about Real Stories
ENCOURAGING HELP-SEEKING WITH ANONYMOUS MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT
Physicians and residents use ISP’s online self-assessment tool to screen for stress, depression and other mental health concerns, and counselors personally respond to address their specific concerns, provide counseling and share mental health resources.
Fighting Loneliness Through Connection
2017 was a tough year for me. My heart had been broken. I was plagued by a medical issue throughout a good portion of the year. The new job I thought was going to be lucrative wasn’t.
Reclaiming Laughter After Suicide Loss
After my husband Victor died by suicide, I thought I would never laugh again. I mean, why would I? Death is devastating. My partner for 30 years was gone. That’s bad enough but the type of loss – suicide – felt like it had doubled that devastation.
I Walk Because My Life is Worth Living
I walk because suicide prevention matters to me and isn’t spoken about enough. No one should suffer alone or in silence. I walk because my passion in life is to share my experiences in hopes that they can help someone else.
Sharing My Story – and My Father’s – at The Overnight
So often, mental health conditions can be muted by stigma, shame and misinformation. I participate in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Overnight Walk to challenge this silence.
Turning Listening into Legislation: Advocating for More Accessible and Affordable Mental Health Care
Your story is the opening to an ongoing conversation with your representatives. Our job as advocates is to make sure that listening becomes legislation.
Respect and Love Are Lifesaving
When we extend respect to people and love them, it truly is lifesaving. I know this because it has been people’s respect and love that has saved my life more times than I can count. Most of the people who had a positive impact on my life didn’t know the impact they had on me in those moments.
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s: Protecting Your Mental Health During the Holidays
Concerned about the impact of the holiday season on your mental health? You are not alone.
The Other Side of Hospitalization
When I was 17-years-old, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I Disorder. I’d been battling with depression since early middle school, but had tell-tale signs of hypomania by my junior year of high school. My depression getting worse was what ultimately led me to seek out a psychiatrist, and learning of my new diagnosis.
Being Who I Needed When I Was Younger
There is no community or school district that doesn’t have people needing to hear the specific message that it is okay to be who they are, and have that be backed up by a willingness to connect them to truly affirming services that meet their needs for mental health care, medical care, housing, advocacy, and more.
The Evolution of College Mental Health
The transition to college led me to seek help. It had recently become clear to me that I had anxiety, and this was only emphasized by my moving away from home, friends, and familiarity. I recognized that mental health is a constant in everyone’s life: something I must take the time to acknowledge and attend to.
I Want to Grow Up: Seeing a Future After Attempting Suicide in Grade-School
For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with anxiety. My earliest memory of it was in the first grade. I talked in class, trying to make a friend – unfortunately, I did it while the teacher was speaking. She got angry, and made me walk to the front of the class. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
Grieving a Suicide Loss: Eight Things I Know For Sure
If you are reading this, you may be someone who had to steady yourself for the sudden and unexpected changes to your world that occurred as a result of the suicide of a loved one. You may not know where to start or whether you are experiencing all of the emotions connected to suicide grief.
I Don’t Like Keeping Secrets
When evidence began to suggest what we knew in our gut – that Max acted intentionally to end his life – Meg (my wife/Max’s mother) and I had to decide how to handle that information. We decided to be forthright and honest about how he died.
Mental Health and the Military: Asking for Help When You Need It
I am a survivor of suicide loss, having lost a first cousin, a second cousin, and an Air Force son to suicide. I am also a survivor of suicide ideation.
Fathers' Day: Remembering Michael
All questions we’d ask, answers none of us knew
I Am Still Here
If you’re like me, you have experienced a moment: a point in time in which you felt you could go no further, that no version of your future could be worthwhile. Perhaps you’ve had many of these moments. Living with the daily struggle of a mental health condition, this sort of moment can feel like a lifetime.
From Me to You
It’s been almost seven years since my dad passed. It still amazes me that I have lived seven years without the man who was my everything.