Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Psyche.
Living...With Mental Illness
Where do I start when it comes to talking about living with mental health? It’s a question I often ask myself. Should I be honest? Lay all my cards on the table? Do my closest friends and family need to know every little detail about my struggle? And if I did tell them, would they even care? Or would they just give me the generic responses I’d heard my whole life? “Everyone feels like that” “No one likes work, you just do it” and the ever-popular “Man up!” After all, they probably have their own issues to deal with, right?
By Zach Rodgers8 years ago in Psyche
Accepting Weight Gain
It is the most difficult part of eating disorder recovery. Letting go of the sick and emaciated body that you spent years striving towards, the safety of a ribcage that sticks from under your bruised skin, and the comfort in listening to anorexia and her sickening demands. Your body changes day to day, meal to meal, as it tries to readjust itself to a regular feeding schedule and a substantial food intake. Bloating, cramps, stomach pains and no appetite are all part of the refeeding process. But what happens after that? When your body gradually remembers how to digest something other than diet soda, and you can see the numbers scribbled in the weighing room begin to increase. There is plenty of support to get you back in a healthy, strong and functioning body, but little to none when you are faced with dealing with the unavoidable weight gain, and the new body you begin to see in the mirror.
By Rosie Carlile8 years ago in Psyche
The Girl with the Many Tattoos
The greatest thing about depression is that it makes you feel that things can never be any other way. The hopelessness is so profound, no amount of external coercion can reason it away. I used to feel such a lack of control during my depressive state that I turned to the only thing I felt like gave me some control. I started self-harming. This is a story about how I managed to fight that impulse and did not allow my depression to overwhelm me.
By Ayesha Javed8 years ago in Psyche
I Am Depressed, Please Stop Telling Me to 'Cheer Up'
I am depressed. Please stop telling me to "cheer up." I remember the first time I heard the word "depression." I was 11 and in my first year at secondary school. My best friend at the time had obviously just learnt that this word meant "upset" or "sad" or any adjective that similarly describes a slightly disappointed or uneasy emotion or feeling. She used it to describe anything from there not being the dessert she liked in the lunch hall to having to do P.E. class (to be fair, a pretty depressing experience). I didn’t realise how serious it was to claim you were "depressed." At that age it’s very easy to throw around words without knowing the meaning. Unfortunately, we seem to continue to do so as adults. I actually just did, by claiming that P/E claim was depressing.
By Samantha Bentley8 years ago in Psyche
Infinity
Depression, what is it? It’s a ten-letter word that most people don’t take too seriously, a word that seems to have lost meaning, but a disease that so many people seem to be suffering from nowadays. Nobody seems to know how it originated but depression isn’t something easy. I should know. Depression makes you feel the lowest and causes you to reach rock-bottom. It’s not something that can be fought with a prescription and most definitely not a trend; people don’t make up depression for attention, it is real. Everything seems to be your fault and nothing you do seems right, or so to you it seems. The only way it can be solved is by taking your own life, or so you think.
By Francis G. Povis8 years ago in Psyche
Product Review: That Little Pink Pill
My life coach gave me a simple writing task a few weeks ago. I was asked to write about a product I use every single day, or a product I absolutely rave about. Being a girl who likes to take care of herself, I use lots of products everyday. From makeup and skin care products, to hair sprays and oils, my bathroom cabinet is just filled with items that I use to beautify myself daily. I love using all of these products, but when I am asked to write about a product that I swear by, or a product that I cannot seem to go a day without, these items are not the first things that come to mind. The first thing that crosses my mind is Adderall.
By Taylor Koploff8 years ago in Psyche
Finishing the Fight with Bulimia
Two years ago, I wouldn't be voluntarily sitting in a coffee shop like I am now. Heck, I would be trying every move possible to not have to go to a coffee shop. And then, just for considering eating food—my goodness, the idea of it, I would need to go for a run. I couldn't go to the gym to work out, because when I started exercising, I couldn't stop again until my body made me. I either passed out, or was too weak to stand. My diet consisted of a maximum of three hundred calories per day or less. I could eat nothing all day, and still be angry and upset at myself. I exercised until my body was falling apart, starved until I was freezing no matter how many layers I wore, and lacking energy to the point where I could barely leave bed.
By Elle White 8 years ago in Psyche
