Hurts Me More Than You: Clay’s Story

“Dad said that children in the old testament got stoned to death for rebelliousness, so it was a good thing I didn’t live back then.”

The Difficulty with Admitting Trauma: Kandice’s Story

“I knew I was gay from a young age, and in college, in my Ethics class, we were taught ‘facts’ about homosexuality that didn’t connect at all with my experience. Such things as, people become gay through being recruited, usually at a bar (I’d never been to a bar and as far as I knew, I’d never met a gay person).”

If I Could Wave a Magic Wand: Arachne’s Story

“If I could wave a magic wand and erase the past, I would. Trust me. In a heartbeat. I think about it over and over. What would I have been like if I’d had a decent education? If I hadn’t been abused and controlled by the people who had total power over me, where would I be?”

It’s a Long Road Out of Depression, But There is a Road: By Lana Hobbs

“This is what depression looks like for me. I didn’t recognize it because I didn’t believe in depression… It was years before I finally got help. If you have unexplained sadness, exhaustion, and sickness, please get help. Medication isn’t really ‘witchcraft’ and therapy isn’t ungodly psychobabble. There is help and hope for a healthy mind.”

Life is Pain and Beauty and Truth: By Miriam

“i felt a deep shame. if god made christians joyful, why was i depressed. if god gave christians peace, why did i have to get relief from a blade. i knew i was a bad christian. i knew that god must hate me. they said that god loves the world and all the people in it. but he didn’t stop my bullies and abusers from hurting me.”

My Mind Wasn’t Lost, I Had PTSD: By Susannah

“Like the society in Shyamalan’s ‘The Village’, the world I was raised in had been hemmed in by fears: fear of God, fear of Satan, fear of persecution, fear of government control, fear of strangers or nosy neighbors, fear of vaccines and unhealthy foods, fear of ourselves. Though I had left that world years earlier, the patterns of anxiety were worn deep in my psyche.”

Homeschooling and Mental Illness: By Sara Tinous

“Growing up in this environment was a catalyst for my own anxiety and depression. I went from being an incessantly chatty queen bee elementary school kid who knew everyone at my school to someone who only ocassionaly saw one of three or four girls my age and who was afraid to use a telephone to talk to a librarian.”

A Call for Stories for HA’s Upcoming Mental Health Awareness Series

“Mental health is a fundamentally important part of our daily lives. It is as important — and as natural — as any other type of health like dental or physical health. But when we are mentally unhealthy, we are often afraid to talk about it. We can feel ashamed. Embarrassed. Terrified of what others might think. Alienated. ‘Crazy.’ …We need to break this stigma.”

I Am Not A Victim, I Am A Survivor

“There are times, like when I’m writing a post like this, that I feel much the same way I did that day: defeated, humiliated, like a victim, but then I remember, I’m a survivor. I fought, and clawed my way towards finally getting the right to start my own life, and won. I survived the toxic self hatred and ignorance of fundamentalism, and cast it aside.”

Burn In Case Of Evil: Cain’s Story, Part Four

“Many have remarked that it was obviously homeschooling that made us who we are. The answer to that question is complicated because I am what I am because of, and despite of, homeschooling. When your entire social life and community K-12 is homeschooled, of course these influences significantly impacted my life.”