Tag: art and mental illness

One doctor advised, “Do not listen to the voices!” Yet I yearned for them—the dreams, the poetic signs, the strange illuminations where the streets shed their names.

They said all my suffering was in my imagination. They couldn’t have cared less about my agony—they laughed at me as I begged for mercy.

Dory’s eloquent reflections on her relationship with the voices she heard anticipated the burgeoning Hearing Voices and Mad Pride movements.

Nisha Gupta reflects on spiritual emergency, wounded healing, and why staying alive in times of profound pain is not only an individual task but a collective one.

A conversation with artist Jessica Fairfax Hirst about the process behind her "Withdrawal First Aid Kit" art installation.

A cinematic prose poem that uses metaphor and symbol to capture the essence of experiences for which there are no words.

In my case, writing was the beginning of healing. It pulled me out of the abyss and gave me structure, voice, and purpose. It gave me a sense of authorship over a life hijacked by memory.

I didn't know Wallace was a poster boy for antidepressant withdrawal because I didn't know that antidepressant withdrawal was common, or that I would be experiencing it myself.

It's hard, if not impossible, to impose on my son’s story any kind of literary “sense.” As a writer and a mother both, this has been my challenge. 

You go from enjoying writing to dreading the idea of ever scribbling words on a piece of paper ever again. What was once your escape has now become your prison.

Miranda Spencer discusses Britney Spears' new memoir and the harms of conservatorship.

I consider synchronicity and sequencity connections to be gifts. The meaning involved is often much deeper and more personal than other people will recognize.

Psychology has greatly broadened its scope since Nietzsche’s day and yet his implied criticism is one the discipline is still wrestling with.

In her tragic passing, I choose to honor her by raising up these words she said, by hearing and believing them.

Mia Berrin is a songwriter, producer, and recording artist based out of Brooklyn, whose project, Pom Pom Squad, has garnered attention over the last...

Chris Bullard is the executive-director of the Sound Mind Live Festival which uses music as a connective force to bring people together to help address mental health stigma.

Many enthusiasts of heavy metal will say things like "Heavy metal saved my life," and there is a fairly established narrative amongst fans of the wellbeing benefits.

My book is a memoir written around the denial of my medical certificate required to fly light aircraft for mental health reasons.

A poem can be destroyed when psychiatry treats a poet without reverence and honor for their creativity and their diversity of mind.

Poets with lived experience with mental distress are invited to perform their poetry live at MIA's Mad Poetry Slam on Zoom on May 7th, 12PM EST.

I wanted to explore how time and sequence work when memory is disrupted, in my case due to traumatic brain injury. I needed to document and reclaim my own sensorium.

At times I tend to feel invisible. Sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in with everyone else; I feel like an outsider.

Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. She writes: "This poem was written in my first year at a queer-positive school and is processing the new forms of guilt and shame I experienced and was exposed to."

Meet another talented teen behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition, who says: "I think art is underrated sometimes because of its seemingly uselessness, but I highly believe it can cure many minds."

This is the first of 4 spotlight interviews with some of the talented youth behind the pieces in MIA's art exhibition. HoJin states: "The original idea for my drawing started with the brain. The complexity of its sudden twists and curves fascinates me."