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I Should Be Able to Handle This, Right?: Josephine’s Story
By Josephine N. // The past few months of last year were tough. I remembered waking up one morning feeling helpless and empty. I felt that there was something lacking in my life and, me being me, told myself that it was absolutely necessary that I do something about it. “I scared myself this morning,” I…
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Build an Emergency Supply of Light: Alana’s Story
By Alana G. // Beyond A Maze Pause for a moment now and look inwards. What do you see or hear? We have roughly 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts in a day. Many of those we tend to focus on can be negative ones. I often struggle with negative self-talk, especially during stressful periods. Through this…
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The Truth About Eating Disorders: Cheryl’s Story
By Cheryl // Breaking Mirrors – You Are More Than What You See I’ve had an eating disorder for almost six years now and have come to terms with the fact that I’m still living with this illness. However, I now know that this disorder is not who I am; that it’s not even a part…
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More Than My Disorder: Jia Jun’s Story
By Jia Jun // Breaking Mirrors – You Are More Than What You See It feels good talking about my eating disorder; to see how far I’ve come and to, hopefully, help someone out there. Sharing details about ED though, is triggering–I buried all the negativity on my road to recovery, so digging them up…
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Depression is a Jerk: Mak’s Story
By Kean Loong // He is next to me, at the head of my bed the moment I wake up. He smiles, then kicks at my head, and jumps on my chest. He sneers, “So what’s lined up for today? Shall I tell you the ways I can interfere and make sure your life doesn’t…
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Minding My Mind: Emily’s Story
By Emily // I am Emily. “THAT Emily” as the haters would say. Even my closest friends and schoolmates whisper critically amongst themselves at the very sight of me. They saw me as different and hated the fact that I was considered “special” and favoured by teachers and school seniors. Being the only child of…
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Story: A Cautionary Tale
By Nicole K. // There were hardly any local, personal stories on mental illness and recovery when we first started. The few inspiring gems we found were largely in the form of print biography. Things are vastly different now with more cross-sectoral collaborations, accompanied by a groundswell of mental health initiatives, thanks to the steady…
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A Different Voice: Vanessa’s Story
By Vanessa // I would like people to become more aware of and accepting of mental illness. Living with mental illness isn’t easy. It is like having a monster that eats you from within. Except no one can see this monster, so no one believes you when you talk about it. I have been dealing…
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You Remain: Andrea’s Story
By Andrea // I have been struggling with clinical depression, anxiety, stress and agoraphobia for two years now. I rarely leave home and find it difficult to interact with strangers and see no hope for myself in my future. This is my reality. I worked as an English tutor at education companies in Asia but…
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Journalling for Recovery: Xicius’ Story
By Xicius // I have struggled with recovery for many years. I made many attempts at recovery and one of them was through writing a diary. I failed miserably on multiple occasions but I realize that this is due to several reasons. The things I wrote about are vague; no concrete goals or intention. Unspecified…
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Recovery is a Journey, Not a Destination: Sam’s Story
By Sam // To others, I appear a tough, strong, and independent girl: life’s hard knocks will not keep me down; I have a solid goal in life, a good career, and a partner. Little did I expect, I hit the rock bottom last April. It began when I felt lost all of a sudden.…
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Secret Shame and Restoration: Ryan’s Story
By Ryan // There is a saying, that the happiest people are usually the saddest people. Be it that of leaders or that one friend who is always helping people–they give so much of themselves to others but they do not receive much in return. I personally feel that depression is a constant battle within…
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4 Good Reasons on Why You Need to Have Friends: Judy’s Story
By Judy // It took 2 years for me to realise the importance of friends. It was a scary thought to begin with. But as Nick Vujicic once said: “If you don’t have a friend, be someone else’s friend.” I only started making friends again when I was on a student exchange programme in Europe.…
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Life After Psychosis: Boon Kee’s Story
By Boon Kee // I was diagnosed with psychosis in April 2014 and was hospitalised at the Institute of Mental Health (Singapore) for more than a month. After I was prescribed with medication I was discharged and placed under the Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP). Included in this care model are case management services and provide…
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My Stay in “Hougang Chalet”: Victoria’s Story
By Victoria // There is a rising number of people seeking help for mental health, but there is a shortage of beds in the psychiatric wards of government hospitals. This sometimes means they’d have to be transferred to IMH. Yes, IMH! Or otherwise nicknamed “Hougang Chalet”. Whenever I mention “IMH” around people, their eyes would…