Smashing the Stigma - Towards Mental Health

and Addiction

by Colette Doherty

I wrote this book in poetry, one by one. There are 24 poems in this book. The first section is about mental health, which I suffered through trauma (PTSD) growing up. I had suffered from this from a young age.

It wasn’t until my late teens that I started experiencing fear and anxiety, and back then I didn’t understand why I felt like this. Now I know trauma can raise its ugly head when you least expect it.

It totally changed me from an outgoing person to someone who worried about everything. Not only that, I became like a sponge and seemed to feel everyone’s pain. These poems are not long or boring, but they will give you insight into what my world had become.

Through being traumatised so badly, I picked up on others who told me their stories. I worried for them and tried to help so many people. I see now I couldn’t look at my own pain. But it caught up with me, and the poems you read on mental health reflect my own pain.

The reason I wrote this book was to let others know they are not alone. I also wanted to try and educate others on what PTSD can cause. Because it’s an invisible illness, it’s hard for others to understand — especially when you hide it out of shame and stigma, as society has made it so hard for people to open up.

Some saw the only way out as suicide. Not because they were weak — but because they had been strong for too long.

The next part of my poetry is about addiction, which I believe goes hand in hand, as our only escapism was to numb our pain. Mine was alcohol, which only made matters worse, although at that time I had nowhere to turn and no one to speak to.

This is also about others who used different substances who I met on my journey. I certainly believe it was underlying pain, or generational cycles, that seemed to follow each generation to the next.

These are stories in poems that I felt I needed to write because of the stigma attached to mental health. Sadly, people would not voice their opinions, worried about what others would say.

Instead of putting people down — help them up.

These people are screaming for help. Sadly, there are not enough professionals who really look at underlying pain.

Many struggling people feel like numbers. It’s easy to study something, but to walk in the shoes of someone who is truly unwell would change perspectives and help remove the stigma attached through generations.

Let’s smash the stigma towards mental health and addiction in this day and age.

By Colette Doherty