Living with Mental Illness: Practical and Spiritual Dimensions of Speaking Up (Hybrid)

Reflect on how we understand our mental health stories, and how talking about them can be empowering. We are not just our diagnoses. But keeping silent about our mental health identities, particularly when we are in positions of power and visibility, can conspire with mental health stigma and a culture that sees mental illness as deficiency and weakness. When we open up about our mental health stories, it allows us to have more nuanced conversations about other aspects of ourselves and our communities — and it can help heal splits between psyche and spirit. In this dialogue, we will reflect on how we understand our mental health stories to interact with our spiritual and social stories about ourselves and our cultures, and how talking about them can be empowering.