"It isn’t a bad thing that we are all talking more about mental health; it would be silly to argue otherwise. But this does not mean it is not infuriating to come home from a secure hospital, suicidal, to a bunch of celebrity awareness-raising selfies and thousands of people saying that all you need to do is ask for help – when you’ve been asking for help and not getting it. There is a poster in my local pharmacy that exclaims, “Mental health can be complex – getting help doesn’t have to be!” Each time I see it, I want to scream".
"Stigma exists from a place of real fear, and a lack of understanding of the behavioural changes that can accompany mental illness. Episodes of illness can be frightening, frustrating, tiring and annoying for both the unwell individual and those around them. The key isn’t to deny this, but to educate".
"So I am a newspaper journalist – for now. But I don’t know how long for because the illness might grip itself around me so tightly that it cuts off everything I love and hold dear, and my ability to lead a normal life".
"Mental illness...makes you doubt what you see in the mirror...[and] lead[s] to time slipping away like a Dali clock''.
"How do I tell you that it is horrible being an inpatient, because there will be people there who are crazier than you, and you do not want to be around those people? Sometimes the situation will be reversed".
"I used to blame the system...But sometimes, that system gets inside the staff, too. It is there when you are asked the same questions by 20 professionals, in a time of great distress, and then reprimanded for anger when you snap the 21st time".
"How do I explain that, sometimes, I doubt the professionals know what they are doing?"
Hannah Jane Parkinson
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