I received so many good wishes from close and not-so-close friends when I launched Not A Pretty Picture last weekend. There were two types of responses, really: People started sharing their experiences with mental health matters, whether their own or of someone they know. People complimented me on being brave and having the balls to […]
Symptoms of Schizophrenia (my experience with my brother)
Schizophrenia is a disorder of fragmented mental processes. It is NOT split personality. It is a disease of the brain. Sufferers interpret reality abnormally. These are a few symptoms: 1. Hearing voices. Sufferers hear voices. No, not like you and I who hear our inner critic or champion. They literally hear voices in their heads. […]
The hardest thing for a parent to do
I remember the day my mother had to leave my brother in the then Woodbridge hospital. I remember her coming home, sobbing and saying something to the effect of “I’ve gone and done it. I’ve done it.. I’ve done it…” She wasn’t saying that to me, but I was nearby, listening. She would have been […]
Why is everything so heavy?
I remember the moment when I heard that the frontman of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington had killed himself. I was holidaying in Norway, it was bright and sunny at 12 midnight on account of it being summer and the sun never setting. Hubby and I were having a couple of drinks when I heard this. […]
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me
It had been a week of uncontrollable crying. There were no particular triggers, well, my whole life can be viewed as a trigger, but I would just randomly burst into tears. I noticed it happened mostly when I was in the shower or driving. Maybe in my most private or cocooned up moments. It was […]
How I Deal
If there were a magic formula on how to deal with depression, I can guarantee you this disease would be eradicated from the world. But there isn’t. No matter all the steps I am about to tell you on how I get by daily, if you’re in it, you may not even be able to […]
Every tear a waterfall
Have you ever cried like your world was ending? I have. Countless times. Since I was a teenager, without even knowing what the hell I was crying for. When you’re young and you grow up in an environment without the kind of openness or emotional support you see on all those American TV shows where […]
It’s ok if they don’t like your post
I was inspired to write this upon reflecting on what a friend of mine who was going through tough times said. He has a blog himself, which he occasionally updates and shares on Facebook. On a random day, I checked in with him, and when he said he wasn’t well, I became very quickly concerned […]
The 2010s: A decade in review
After the tumultuous years that dominated the 2010s, 2019 was a surprisingly chilled / balanced year. I have never sat down to recap a decade, let alone a year before – I don’t have any compulsion to wax lyrical about another year older, wiser blah blah. I’m still not going to go on a rambling […]