My Voice Counts: Awakening a Silenced Voice

In this collection of poetry, individuals living with mental illness convey in an intimate, evocative and vivid style their longing for acceptance, meaning and recovery. For the mentally ill, writing poetically by using imagery, figurative language, symbolism and metaphor is a safe passage to reclaim who one was before the illness emerged. Individuals living with disorders on the Schizophrenia Spectrum and Bipolar Disorder are a vessel of truth and writing poetically transforms that truth in a way that makes it amenable to healing. What is dormant, and undoubtedly shameful to disclose is awakened, and it energizes one to act in some way to heal, defeat and overcome ongoing devaluation, loneliness, stigmatization and alienation. In the end, it is hope that gives life meaning and sustains faith for the good life. Without hope, one lives in despair and futility. The evocative nature of poetry transforms silence, alienation and insignificance to sound. The written word, the poem, allows one to share this experience in a public forum for others to understand and ultimately connect them to the larger world to reduce alienation and engender integration. The healthy mind will invariably understand the depth of suffering and through empathy, the ability to take the role of the other, become more compassionate toward the mentally ill.