Mental ill health isn’t: A marketing campaign The new celebrity A career based on the one time you burnt out and needed a few weeks off work A zero cost option To be taken lightly To be misunderstood or degraded To be stigmatised To be handled without professional support A tick box exercise A one off event An expose A commercial enterprise or financially driven endeavour A t-shirt, a slogan A book deal A photo opp A time to be without others.
But it can be all these things too. It is a life for many that will take their lives It can affect those and those around them for years if not forever It hurts and costs It fractures and breaks It is a life of trials It rejects, and bonds It asks of us and others It strengthens It is for learning, awareness, expansion and growth It is nothing and everything It changes everything There is no light without dark
Such a life.