It happened. When I look back, I feel as if it was a different person, a different me, a different life, that it was not a chapter of this life that I am living now. But it did happen. No, it does not define me and no, I do not carry it around with me anymore, I have chosen to accept it because acceptance breeds peace and I deserve peace.

Morning routines should be simple and effortless when you’re young and thriving. They should invigorate you and you should feel a sense of determination as you prepare for the day ahead.

I'll be honest I don't fully understand how this 'Vocal' site works. I'm not entirely sure where my work will go once I click the 'Submit For Review' button. Can I create any type of blog post on here, or am a preparing pieces to potentially feature in one of the communities displayed across the taskbar? What will be the criteria for the 'Review'? Will my work pass?

First off, start with not believing everything you hear, read, or listen to from the brainwasher. People who try to force you to believe certain things mean you very serious harm. It is worse when they say that they have your own best interests in mind, seeing as they want to help you. If they say, "I’m doing this for your own good," beware because their actions are not meant for your own good. Really listening to your gut instincts helps you when you are in the presence of someone who is gaslighting you or saying, “It really didn’t happen that way,” and messing with your perceptions. Brainwashers try to learn what they can about you just so they can manipulate your beliefs, replacing it with their own beliefs that they want you think about yourself. They want to know of your weaknesses as well as whom you trust. When they know which persons you trust, they brainwash you out of trusting them.

This is just me possibly, but I am not happily counting to Christmas. I am not a fan usually, but this year is possibly worse. My mental health is bad at present, which doesn't help. I am not religious, but I am beginning to wonder if it is all commercial. It starts in October and seems to go on forever. I admit giving in to the mince pies with use by dates weeks short of Christmas.

I've known I've had PTSD for almost six or seven years. I've never been to war. I'm not an EMT or a LEO. I'm just a mom. I'm 30 now.

The physical health of Europeans is improving, yet the same cannot be said for mental health. Whereas public health has been a priority, it is mostly focused on physical health and disease prevention, with mental health being secondary. Nonetheless, suicide accounts for 1.4 percent of deaths worldwide and is the second most prominent cause of death amongst young people. The act of suicide should not be considered an individual issue, but rather one that affects that person’s family, their surroundings and society in general.

I was fairly late to the anxiety party, I can't say it was one I particularly wanted to be invited to after hanging around the depression get-togethers for too long.

There was something wrong with me.

A lot of times, you hear people with medical or mental health conditions "disown" their diagnoses. They refrain from saying "my cancer", or, "my anxiety"—and for good reason. It has been shown that by separating yourself from your illness, you don't take on the negative attributes; you are not your illness.

There's a certain strength that comes along with being honest about where you need to be met.

My name is Richard Jones and this is my story!

I was raised in Alcoholics Anonymous. I remember vividly being in a pack and play, in the corner of the room with my best friend. Our dad's were both in the program together and they were best friends. I was raised on the 12-steps, my "family" was all of my dad's program friends and everyone was Uncle and Auntie to me. As I grew up and started experimenting with drugs and alcohol, I was welcomed into the program by everyone I knew growing up. I was praised for being "so young" and going through with the AA program.

I have always admired Jamie Lee Curtis, though I'm no huge fan of the genre that got her started.

Hi, I’m Jackie and I'm a recovering addict. The photo is of my family at exactly the time I was introduced to Methamphetamine. I've never thought back to the beginning of it all and gone through my journey step-by-step; so I am inviting you to come on this ridiculous ride with me. The good, bad, and down right ugly of it all.

The next decade of humanity will be defined by three mental conditions: Stress, anxiety and depression. This triad will take more lives in the next ten years than the first and second World Wars together and I was very close to be part of that statistic.

Collectively humanity is finally moving forth from an era in which mental illnesses were regarded as imaginary ailments, into an era where we are being forced to recognize that mental health is no less important than physical health. According to the World Health Organization, upwards of 800,000 people a year will commit suicide globally. That is one person every 40 seconds. Why is it that during this time of acknowledging mental heath, we are seeing more suicides than ever before? Suicide.org estimates that global suicide rates have increased a whopping 60 percent within the last 45 years, and continues to increase. In the aftermath of suicide, it is not uncommon to hear friends and family express their overwhelming shock, explaining that their loved one seemed “so happy and full of life,” or “they seemed fine mere days ago." My prognosis is that, even though society has recognized that we have a global mental health crisis, collectively we are still failing to understand what it really means to live life with a mental illness. It is extremely difficult for someone who doesn’t fight this battle, to truly understand what it means to be on the frontlines.

It's not all that uncommon to hear people self-diagnose a mental illness or suggest a diagnosis for someone else. It's certainly something that seems tempting, but is it accurate?

Anxiety is extraordinary. Currently 284 million people globally suffer from anxiety, various types of course. That's approximately 1 in every 13 people and its only on the rise.

Welcome to my insane life. My name is Alex. I'm 20 years old, but sometimes I feel like I'm 12. I have generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and panic disorder. I'm in college, living by myself. I have a boyfriend, a mom, a dad, a sister, a brother, a dog, and a small extended family. I'm an overeater when I get anxious, causing me to have body dysmorphia. Yep, I'm a hot mess, actually, an average looking mess.

When you look at this picture you get two perceptions. One, a beautiful girl with makeup on... two, take a closer look. The eyes, you see the pain in her eyes.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder about 14 years ago and I must admit, it was a relief to know there was something wrong with me, something tangible I could label, a way to understand the inner turmoil; it felt good to know other people were like me too, it felt good to know there was a reason (chemical imbalance I was told). Before the diagnosis, I just thought I was fucking crazy and was too scared to tell people the real truth, the ups and downs and sometimes the daily mood swings which totally controlled me. I hid it all out of fear. Fear that people would not understand. I knew something from quite a young age; I knew I was different in some way.

Grey or Gray areas... Nothing in life is EVER black and white.

If anyone reads this when I have passed to the big bad beyond I shall be posthumorously embarrassed. I shall spend my entire afterlife blushing.

Living with a mood disorder has been the hardest "obstacle" in my life; I say obstacle because that is exactly what it is. My disorder blocks my way and prevents me from making progress within. Throughout my teenage years I always had a gut-wrenching feeling that something was wrong with me, I didn't believe my thoughts were normal and it scared me; my mindset was in shambles and I had no idea how to cope.

2019 was supposed to be the best year yet. At least that’s what I told myself when it started. So far, I have experienced more loss in my life than any year I’ve lived before. I lost my aunt to brain cancer a week after being diagnosed. I lost both my oldest and youngest dogs—13 years old, and two and a half years old—a week apart from each other.

October 14, 2019 marked five years from when I slipped into psychosis, lost majority of my memory, and had to go back to one of the facilities I spent my teenage years in. So, for today’s blogging challenge I thought I’d share my experience along with some helpful advice to others who may have experienced this frightening event. As well help others find ways to help a loved one if they ever find themselves in this type of situation.

When people imagine postpartum depression, they automatically think of all the horror stories such as mothers murdering, abusing, or neglecting their children. There’s a stereotype around postpartum depression. Women who suffer from this are afraid to speak out for fear they’ll be labeled mentally ill or be accused of hurting or mistreating their child—when that’s not the case at all. In fact, 40% of moms do not get help for their PPD. I’m here to share my story with you, and shed some light on this matter and show that PPD is very real, very scary, and doesn’t make me—or anyone suffering—a bad person.

Sometimes I feel like I was born to be misunderstood. Not many people get how I can be someone who deals with anxiety, depression, or even self confidence and body image issues. Someone like me who’s always the loudest in the room (or tries to be), someone like me who lives to make other people laugh, or feels the utmost happiest when the people around her are happy. You can meet me on the street and never be able to tell that I battle with inner demons every single day. I think a lot of people feel unwanted in their every day life but don’t understand why or thinks that nobody else would understand it. Well, I do.

Men’s mental health can be a large stigma and a quiet process to deal with. Most surveys and recent news have shown that men suffer from higher suicide rates and do not talk about their personal issues.

In the broad spectrum of things, narcissism is a personality disorder. Breaking this illness down into something smaller and easier to understand isn’t always straightforward.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, there are a few important things you’ll need to consider. You should know how life will change with these diagnosis, and you need to know the risks of continuing to drive. Millions of Americans live with Alzheimer’s, so you’re not alone. Here’s everything you need to know about living with this disease.

Ahh it is that time of year once again, the clocks have gone back an hour, making 5 PM feel more like 6 PM, and it gets dark at 4:30 PM. Not only is the outside world seemingly greyer, but your outlook on things may be as well. You start to feel down and have no explanation for why you feel this way, other than it's just the weather; then you are dealing with Seasonal Depression.

"Okay. Today's going to be a good day. You're going to be strong. You’re not going to eat," I tell myself as I stand in front of the mirror in my underwear. I turn left. I turn right. I twist my knees in to make my thighs look farther apart. I count my ribs, wishing I could see them all outlined against my skin without having to suck in my gut. I grab my upper arm, measuring how far around my hand can clasp.

There are two people inside of me.

This isn’t as easy as people make it out to be. People tell me to just be more active. To change my diet. Go to the gym. Work out. It isn’t that simple. It is never that simple.

Narcissists and psychopaths lie. They are reliant on the reactions of others to feel alive, be relevant, to exist—they talk continuously. When they are not interacting and getting reactions (supply) from others, they are irrelevant. Think of a phone without a battery in it. That is how they feel. A sense of nothingness.

Narcissistic psychopaths love mobile devices. They can lock them up, pull them out to appear; busy, working or otherwise occupied and important and they can lock you out.

Surprisingly—or maybe unsurprisingly—there are plenty of psychopaths who are not just productive members of society but, more often times than not, are people of power in our societies.

How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?

"The media (and politicians) is/are so quick to pick up the mental illness scapegoat because it/they know(s) that people need to blame the tragedy on something" - Mike Hedrick

Note: Anything stated below is purely from my own opinions and experience, and is not the voice of the Collective, although this will be checked by other admins before posting! This post is about my experiences with my mental health, so if this is a trigger for you, please stop reading.

Morning routines should be simple and effortless when you’re young and thriving. They should invigorate you and you should feel a sense of determination as you prepare for the day ahead.

First off, start with not believing everything you hear, read, or listen to from the brainwasher. People who try to force you to believe certain things mean you very serious harm. It is worse when they say that they have your own best interests in mind, seeing as they want to help you. If they say, "I’m doing this for your own good," beware because their actions are not meant for your own good. Really listening to your gut instincts helps you when you are in the presence of someone who is gaslighting you or saying, “It really didn’t happen that way,” and messing with your perceptions. Brainwashers try to learn what they can about you just so they can manipulate your beliefs, replacing it with their own beliefs that they want you think about yourself. They want to know of your weaknesses as well as whom you trust. When they know which persons you trust, they brainwash you out of trusting them.

I am 23 now and a lot has changed; that’s why I am writing in this journal, hoping that what I put down, somehow, the pain I feel stays on these pages rather than my heart.

That expression, “when something is too good to be true, it usually is,” has actually been real in my life. Because of my current set of medications including Lamictal, I find myself harder to brainwash in the immediate present since I started Lamictal until now. The way brainwashing works is that the brainwasher starts off by making you feel really good. If you struggle with self-esteem like I do, then they make a huge effort to make you feel really good. This is why I’ve stared therapy at a local college yet again. I have stuff I need to sort through, skills I need to learn, and in general, I have to get my head together. Brainwashing is a repetitive phenomenon in which you are told the same things over and over again until you believe it. Some people are so used to it, they walk around unaware that they’ve been brainwashed to put up with abuse.

I don’t need to tell you that it is the seventh biggest killer in the world for you to know that it is one you would never want to get. I shouldn’t need to get into details for you to decide that any possible fate or death would be more merciful than living with this. Death is scary, but when your life is flooded by the anguish caused by dementia, many would rather choose death. I don’t blame them. Anyone that has a disease which causes the irreversible deterioration of the neurons within their brain until everything they ever loved or cared about is gone has a right to choose how long their suffering should last. Sadly, life isn't that simple.

The physical health of Europeans is improving, yet the same cannot be said for mental health. Whereas public health has been a priority, it is mostly focused on physical health and disease prevention, with mental health being secondary. Nonetheless, suicide accounts for 1.4 percent of deaths worldwide and is the second most prominent cause of death amongst young people. The act of suicide should not be considered an individual issue, but rather one that affects that person’s family, their surroundings and society in general.