About – What We Do
Showing the ‘other side’ of the mental health conversation
When we set up our project, it came from our hearts.
Having both been diagnosed with personality disorders, we found that whilst it was fairly straightforward to find information about our conditions, what we didn’t have were lived experiences we could relate to.
Nobody was talking about what it was like to live with the most stigmatised and misunderstood mental health disorders- especially in real life- and we wondered if what we were experiencing was ‘normal’. There seemed to be a lack of spaces on the internet for people to share their stories about what it was like to live with these conditions. So we decided to make one.
The aim of our project has always been to show the ‘other side’ of the mental health conversation.
Often we rarely hear about things like personality disorders, psychotic conditions and dissociative disorders when the media talk about mental health- and if we do, they’re often devoid of nuance and depict tired stereotypes.
People with the most stigmatised disorders are often shamed into silence around their conditions. They are painfully aware that some conditions have become synonymous with abuse, violence and/or manipulation, and even if they are not abusive themselves, they fear being judged on what society tells them they ‘must be like’. Yes, there are some people with mental illnesses who are those things- which we discuss in more depth in the What We Stand For section- but many are not, and tarring everyone with the same brush can be harmful to communities.
Space to share experiences
Since we are aware that negativity towards certain disorders is rife, we do not allow commenting on our stories to protect our contributors (who we keep anonymous).
We hope that in giving people a space to share their experiences, it will help to encourage more open discourse around these disorders and mental illness in general.
We truly hope that no matter who you are, or where you are, you can find stories that you can relate to.
Please note- we include Autism Spectrum Disorder as a category here not as a mental illness, but as a category specifically for those with ASD and mental health-related co-morbidities.
