The following blog posts are written by people with personal experience of depression. By talking openly, our bloggers hope to increase understanding around mental health, break stereotypes and take the taboo out of something that – like physical health – affects us all.

Self-stigma: powerful drug, on tap for free in your head

September 14, 2012

Diana wearing a "Smile, it's free" tshirt | Time to Change bloggerA colleague from the HIV/AIDS project I worked on in Angola was insistent on the matter of auto-estigma, self-stigma. Don’t assume, she taught me, that just because a low-budget sex worker has HIV she disagrees with the normal attitudes about HIV. I wonder how she feels about herself?

Depression: It gave me hope to know I had someone to talk to

September 11, 2012

I developed mental health problems during an abusive relationship. When my partner of fourteen years walked out I was relieved but the reality of what I'd been living with surfaced. I basically shut down. I was unable to function. I lasted about three weeks before I had to stop working. I didn't eat or sleep. I didn't leave the house. I spent hours and hours sat in a fog, trying to survive the pain. I suffered from flashbacks and was permanently afraid.

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