A Letter to my Younger Self by Sonia Moloney, See Change Ambassador   Shame was the one thing that held me back from recovery; the need to hide my mental health struggle, the need to push everyone who cared about me away – my parents, my friends, my classmates. There was a day...Read More

  The antidote to self-stigma and shame  by Marie Duffy, See Change Ambassador I told myself every minute of every day that I was worthless. I was a failure. I was weak. It bred an inner critic that was so vicious that I turned to self-harm.   Mental health stigma did this to me. But I...Read More

  The Antidote to Shame by Kim Horkan, See Change Ambassador As someone who has struggled with mental illness for the majority of my life, I have become very well acquainted with the feeling of shame. As a teenager growing up, I felt shame in abundance. Shame I couldn’t get up in the morning to...Read More

The Behaviours of Shame by Gerry Murray, See Change Ambassador Hello, my name is Gerry. I was born in the sixties, I am a father of four children and I have a strong, supportive wife. I was born into the 60s era where I experienced behaviours and types of abuse which made me feel shame...Read More

  The Feelings of Shame by Aisling, See Change Ambassador See Change Ambassador, Aisling, has created a dance to express the feelings of shame that people with mental health difficulties can experience. The photos above are the stills from this dance.   If you are having a tough time at the moment and need to...Read More

How Shame Shows Up by Aisling Heavey “The moon has nothing to be sad about,   Staring from her hood of bone.” Edge, by Sylvia Plath   Shame can show up in society in many ways. We often find others whispering about experiencing a mental health difficulty. We see people dismissing mental health issues as weakness....Read More

  A Study of Shame by Lucie Kavanagh   “Guilt, of course, is feeling bad about one’s actions, but shame is feeling bad about oneself.” ― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion   Recently I told a friend who hadn’t known me at the time, about my mental health difficulties...Read More

  The Hardest Conversation by Daniela Ferro   You haven’t been sleeping very well lately, have you?   It’s just that the tiniest of noises wakes me up immediately.   I noticed that you are not wearing any make-up anymore.   I just want to give my skin a break.   You seem to be eating more chocolate than...Read More

    Having the hard conversations by Lucie Kavanagh “Such she often felt herself—struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage; to say: “But this is what I see; this is what I see,” and so to clasp some miserable remnant of her vision to her breast, which a thousand forces did their best to...Read More

B is for Brodie and Bisexual by Brodie Thompson PRIDE, what a beautiful time of the year. But all year should be just as beautiful, we can celebrate the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community all year and it doesn’t have to just be when we don our rainbows. It’s great to see a celebration of...Read More