In her painting, “Smile she commanded,” MistressVitinari depicts the struggles of those living with depression when they are told to smile, thereby minimizing their internal…
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. It is thought that Dickinson is comparing her mental health to…
“As far back as I can remember, Michael was always good at being silly. He could make me laugh harder than anyone. He was very…
“What’s eating you alive, might help you to survive” The Ted Leo and the Pharmacists song “Me and Mia” describes what it’s like to live…
Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 piece, The Night Café, is perhaps not as well-known and celebrated as his Café Terrace at Night, but proves a fascinating…
On March 4, 2016, Devon LaFleur, a 30-year-old struggling with bipolar disorder, went missing. His father contacted law enforcement to notify police of his son’s…
Make Happy is the most recent comedy special by actor/comedian/musician Bo Burnham, and is Burnham’s commentary on the social structure that the “social media” generation…
“I Wanna Get Better”, performed by The Bleachers, is a song about singer Jack Antonoff’s personal experiences with grief, depression, and renewal. Through lyrics like, “I…
In her poem “The Addict”, Anne Gray Harvey (Anne Sexton) describes her experience of addiction to sleeping pills and her nighttime ritual of taking them….
In April 2015, Justin Sangiuliano, a seventeen-year-old diagnosed with Autism, was physically restrained at his group home in Oshawa, Canada. To control an aggressive outburst,…
The song “Everything is Alright” by Motion City Soundtrack documents frontman Justin Pierre’s experience with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Pierre recounts cleaning his…
Loyola University recently hosted an exhibit on the works of William Utermohlen, an artist who documented his battle with Alzheimer’s disease through self-portraits over a…
The author of “Alone”, Edgar Allen Poe, experienced many setbacks in his short life. These influenced his writing and helped define his literary style. First,…
In February 2016, Gail—a 911 dispatcher with Toronto Paramedic Services—found herself in tears at work. She had just received a call about Wallace Passos, a…
The song “Otherside” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis narrates a story about drug use and the descent into addiction. As a young man, Macklemore struggled…
People struggling with mental illness are often told to “get over it”. In this cartoon, Dima Dupéré rejects this misconception and sheds light on how…
This series of in-depth interviews covers the difficulties that homeless men and women face with mental illness and drug abuse. A man named Cameron from…
Performing for Toronto during the semi-finals at the 2014 National Poetry Slam, Sabrina Benaim shares her raw experience with depression, disclosing what she has endured…
At one time or another, we may realize that something a friend or family member has said is ‘off’. Neuroscientist Mariano Sigman has taken this…
The song “The Handler” by the band Muse depicts the torment the mind undergoes when being forcibly controlled by an external force. The lyrics describe…
