Advice and tactics shared by those who have been in the same shoes you may be in now.
- Anonymous
- Jonathan
- Anonymous
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#Shareyourcare
#Shareyourcare but submitting any pieces of advice and/or tactics you have been given when coping with a stressful mental health situation. Additionally you can share any empowering book, movie, music playlists, tv shows, podcasts relating to mental health. All genres are welcome! If the form does not appear, please use this link .
Book Recommendations
Click on each recommendation to learn a bit more about the book.
It's Kind of a Funny Story
Ned Vizzini
Holding up the Universe
Jennifer Niven
Everything Here is Beautfiul
Mira T.Lee
Movie/Tv Show Recommendations
Click on each recommendation to learn a bit more about the movie/tv show.
It’s Kind Of A Funny Story (2010)
Movie
This Is Us
Drama Series
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)
Movie
Music Playlists
Music playlists to listen to!
Podcasts
Mental health related podcast episodes to listen to!
Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.
Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.
Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness.
Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed "America's Fattest Teen." But no one's taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom's death, she's been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby's ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything.
Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he's got swagger, but he's also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can't recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He's the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can't understand what's going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don't get too close to anyone.
Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.
Two Chinese-American sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. Lucia impetuously plows ahead, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again—but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.
Stressed by adolescence, 16-year-old Craig Gilner (Keir Gilchrist) checks himself into a mental-health clinic. Unfortunately, the youth wing is closed, so he must spend his mandated five-day stay with adults. One of them, Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), quickly becomes his mentor -- and protege, while Craig finds himself drawn to a fellow teen, Noelle (Emma Roberts), who just may be the cure he needs to forget an unrequited crush.
The Pearson family's generational story unfolds in this emotional drama. In moments of joy and heartbreak, revelations emerge from parents Jack and Rebecca's past, while triplets Kate, Randall and Kevin discover deeper meaning in their present lives. Successful businessman and father Randall searches for information about his biological parents, Kate finds love and self-acceptance while battling obesity, and Kevin pursues a more meaningful career.
Socially awkward Charlie (Logan Lerman) starts high school isolated and anxious. Luckily, he becomes friends with a group of charismatic seniors, including Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller). His friends bring joy to his life, but his inner turmoil reaches a high when they prepare to leave for college. As the film goes on, we learn more about Charlie’s mental health journey—from his stay in a psychiatric hospital to the details of a childhood trauma. This coming-of-age movie does an exemplary job of showing the highs and lows of growing up with mental illness.
please keep in mind that every day of your life does not have to be productive and perfect.
During 7th and 8th grade, I was not in a good place. I was missing way too much school due to abdominal migraine syndrome, constantly wrapped up with toxic friends, and battling some pretty awful teachers. I was stressed, sad, and I felt really lonely. At a few extremely low points, I was having suicidal thoughts. A lot of what I was feeling wasn't hatred and fear of the world, but hatred and fear of myself. The first thing I did was leave the toxic friends. That was hard for me, as I had been friends with them for forever, but there came a point when I gave up trying to be friends with them again, and gave up trying to "fix" myself to please them. I sat with a new group of people during lunch, and I met my best friend to this day. I also tried to focus on taking better care of myself, something I had pretty much neglected during that time. This meant eating more, sleeping more, finding activities that made me happy, and taking a few short breaks a day. The stress didn't go away, and probably never will, but I found ways to cope with it and give myself space to breathe.
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I know my advice sounds trite, but give it a shot. If it doesn't help your stress, that's fine! Everybody is a different person who benefits from different things. And please keep in mind that every day of your life does not have to be productive and perfect. Don't be ashamed of yourself for days when you procrastinate and spend most of your time watching comfort movies. On social media, we often see people broadcasting their perfect routines and their perfect lives. First off, I'd be ASTOUNDED if their life was actually like that. Second, don't compare yourself to them! I would see their posts and instantly feel like I should stop trying, because there was nothing I could do to make my life look that flawless and productive. At the end of the day, it's not how your life looks, it's how it feels. Don't start thinking you aren't doing enough because your life doesn't come with a VSCO filter. :)
Grade: 10th
Age: 16
Date: 3/06/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: Anxiety Disorder
MD: Anonymous 4's Story
Your perception determines the nature of everything.
I just moved to a new country 6 months before the lockdown started. During the pandemic, I sometimes felt lonely and disconnected from neither world I’ve lived in.
I kept myself busy so as not to think about the current situation and changed my mindset.
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Your perception determines the nature of everything.
Date: 3/06/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: None
MD: Anonymous 5's Story
Take a close look at your friends. Ask yourself if you’re being kind and supportive, if you aren’t sure if you are, change the way you project.
When I was dealing with an extensive relapse this summer and spring from my ED, I had a lot of panic attacks, especially in public or at work. I felt so consumed in my ED that the panic attacks were nothing to me and I could accept them. It was terrifying, because I was so exhausted and sore and I had lost quite a bit of weight so every time I’d start panicking I'd feel the symptoms of my ED elevating. I am recovered from it now as I started finding ways to distract myself from the urges to act on my ED, but while I couldn’t it was really rough. For the panic attacks I got from my ED, I used a lot of grounding to help myself cope. I’ve had my fair share of extremely disabling panic attacks and being able to do forms of physical and mental grounding has been really helpful. I once was walking from work to a park and started panicking in public, I felt like I couldn’t breathe and everything started feeling very heavy and my surroundings were bright. I had to keep going until I could find water, so I called a friend and she did grounding with me over the phone. Five things I could see, four things I could hear, three things I could touch, two things I could smell and one thing I could taste. This one thing helped me so much and I repeated it until she could come and help me calm down. It helped me bring myself back to earth if that makes sense, I felt like I wasn’t alive in that moment so I needed to bring myself down.
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Take a close look at your friends. Ask yourself if you’re being kind and supportive, if you aren’t sure if you are, change the way you project. The smallest things can hurt someone, so if you and your friend both have similar mental illnesses, before you share, ask them if they are OK with hearing certain things that may or may not be triggering to them, some people disregarded TW’s, but use your better judgement when it comes to approaching them. Be sure to be kind any instant you can, be attentive. Just be supportive and do what you can provide them. Don’t beat yourself up if you feel like you’re not helping or “curing” them. Also, get them in touch with a psychologist or a therapist instead of a counselor. I’m going to be honest, my experiences with mental health and counselors have only made things worse, so if you’re really concerned, help them find a therapist they like or see if your own parents would be willing to be a support. It’s much more helpful and valuable that way.
Age: 16
Date: 3/06/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: Recovered bulimia, depression, anxiety, PTSD
MD: Anonymous 6's Story
You shouldn’t feel ashamed about reaching out or talking about mental health.
I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and an anxiety disorder a little over a year ago and I never told any of my friends because I didn’t want to make them feel as though it was their problem or make them uncomfortable. I’m in a much better mental state and when I finally opened up about it to some of my friends they were very shocked and had no idea because during that time the only thing I was concerned about was making sure no one suspected or knew anything. [To help me cope], I went to therapy and joined sports and found new hobbies.
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You shouldn’t feel ashamed about reaching out or talking about mental health. Mental health is different for everyone and you never really know what someone is going through no matter how close you think you are with them.
Grade: 10th
Age: 15
Date: 3/05/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: Anxiety Disorder
Lisa's Story
“And this too shall pass!”
I was anxious during my college application process and waiting for decisions. To help me during this time, I put my energy in other things to distract myself like reading or watching shows, and going outside
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“And this too shall pass!” you just have to bear through whatever it is you’re going through, and you are not alone in doing so. You can’t just ‘wish’ for something to go away but with time, your situation will get better and you’ll become more wise and stronger
Grade: 12th
Date: 3/05/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: None
Sandy's Story
It is important to make yourself stronger and higher so you don’t care about the nonsense around you.
Last October, I moved upstairs in my house to separate with my parents because they were still working amidst the pandemic. I lost my room, my heater, and my mind. I was in this freezing cold place, that has my books, laptop, and clothes scattered everywhere. Already stressed from school and the enormous amount of extracurriculars I pulled myself into, moving upstairs not only wasted the time for me to work, it was also a time of family struggle. Battles amongst who will be moving up, why are we separating, the things to bring upstairs, we’re finally resolved in chaos. Within weeks, my course grades plummeted, my physical health tired from the late nights, and my mental health drained upon. There were just times I would find myself crying at 3 a.m. in the dark night and times I find myself sitting right next to the window looking down... To help me overcome this moment in my life, I consistently listened to music tracks, ignored the people who were making me upset, dropped out of useless clubs, and just talked with friends to help my own mental health.
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To the peers reading my story: It is important to make yourself stronger and higher so you don’t care about the nonsense around you. Ignore the people who make you upset, and show them that you are better than what they see of you. Let them know you are not someone to be easily picked on.
Grade: 10th
Age: 15
Date: 3/07/21
Mental Health Diagnoses: None
TX: Anonymous 1's Story
Please please please reach out to others when you’re feeling like the world is against you.
My situation at home is not so good, in which my parents are pretty toxic in ways I stay in my room and starve myself because I don’t want to walk out and get yelled at for random reasons. I was in a pretty rough place with the constant verbal abuse and I’m glad I had friends I could talk to during these times so they could ensure I was okay after one of those episodes with my parents. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if the people who I speak to didn’t comfort me during the entire period of quarantine and I know that other people have it worse. Damaged mental health is really dangerous and can lead to bad circumstances following it, and should not be viewed lightly. Mine is still ongoing; however, my mental health is slowly getting better. I’m not exactly “coping” with it per say, it’s more of an avoidance of the issue. I avoid my parents as much as possible in order not to cause them to flip out at any small thing I do. When they do manage to find me, I tune out their degrading yelling and pray they don’t turn to physical abuse. Every time my dad first sees me, he either calls me fat or that he hopes I never make it to college and he won’t pay for my college. Every time my mom sees me, she yells about how I don’t keep up my appearance and why aren’t I skinny as she used to be. I used to be really emotional in the beginning of quarantine (when the verbal abuse became more prevalent due to staying home 24/7) but now it’s pretty numbing and quite funny to hear them say the same thing over and over. I always talk to my best friend after the episode to make sure I’m okay and just to give them an overall overview of what happened. I’m going to college soon with an almost full ride :) so I’m happy to say I’m gonna have even better mental health after I leave home!
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Please please please reach out to others when you’re feeling like the world is against you. There ARE people who love you, even if it seems like your family, some friends, or others don’t. You are not fighting through this alone. Don’t be afraid to reach out!
