Mentalhealthmatters Stories

Twenty-six-year-old Tori Williams catches her white fiancé in bed with her coworker three months before their wedding, discovering an eight-month affair that shatters everything she believed about love and her own worth. Devastated by betrayal and drowning in PTSD, she flees to Kyoto, Japan on a two-year MFA scholarship in design, desperate to escape the wreckage of her life in Atlanta. Arriving broken and barely functional, Tori navigates crushing loneliness, brutal culture shock, and hypervisibility as a Black woman in homogeneous Japan. She faces constant stares, microaggressions, and the exhausting work of existing in a country where she'll always be Other. Through traditional joinery workshops, she meets Ren Beaumont-a half-Japanese, half-French architecture student with devastating good looks and an emotionally unavailable playboy reputation, haunted by his own family wounds and running from intimacy through meaningless hookups. As they learn kintsugi-the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, making it more beautiful for having been broken-two shattered people begin to recognize themselves in each other's cracks. Tori must decide if she can trust again after annihilating betrayal, while Ren confronts whether he's capable of the vulnerability real love requires. Through cherry blossom seasons and autumn leaves, temple gardens and late-night workshops, they discover that healing doesn't mean becoming who you were before breaking-it means honoring the cracks while building something entirely new. This is a story about surviving trauma, finding home in unexpected places, chosen family that saves lives, and learning that broken and whole aren't opposites-they're the same thing, gold-filled and beautiful. ©️ Relle H

Little things

Real Eyes Realize: Book 2 ❤ Now that Ilaria Johnson and Beau Maxwell are finally together, life at Briar U feels lighter than it ever has before. The tension is gone, the guessing is over, and for the first time, they're learning what it means to love each other out in the open instead of from a distance. Between soccer, football, late-night talks, and a future that suddenly doesn't feel so impossible, everything finally seems like it's falling into place. Until one moment changes everything. An unexpected accident shakes their world and pulls them into fear, uncertainty, and the kind of silence they've never had to face together before. Suddenly, it isn't just about being in love-it's about holding on to it when everything starts to slip away. Because some things can test even the strongest relationships. And this time, they'll have to decide what they're willing to fight through... and what they're afraid they might lose.

This story is a safe space for all the thoughts that you can't say out loud but you wish you could.

This is the letter that I want to tell myself. This serves as my public journal, my reflections, my experiences, lessons from other people, story of others. This letters took a lot of thinking before it came out. For some of us adulthood can be really hard to navigate, may this letters tell you that you're not alone. Some of us were really good at hiding it. These letters are meant to validate any feelings we feel. This is your safe space.

'Life is C before D, after B' Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and novelist. A collection of poems Written by Theodred V

contest entry for inside a dark box

A brief poem for mental health awareness.

A nightmare so vivid it blurred the line between dreams and reality. What started as a simple act of checking on someone after an accident quickly turned into a terrifying fight for survival. I woke up convinced I'd been shot, my heart racing and my body trapped in panic. This is a true account of one of the most intense nightmares I've ever experienced, and a reminder that sometimes the deepest wounds aren't the ones you can see.

Heyyy! Since we're at the beginning of this book I'm only doing one poem a day or at least trying to and I will try my best to reply to yall as best I can!!! This is my first book and it's a lot of poems about a toxic environment and relationship, daddy issues and growing to realize the painting in front of you was fake. Some of these are personal experiences but if you can relate go ahead and read it. If any of y'all need anything please reach out to a professional or loved one! Love y'all, stay safe, have fun, and KEEP YOURSELF HAPPY AND LOVELY!!!!!!!!

A collection of poems dealing with love, loss, PTSD, disability, ADHD, addiction, depression, suicide ideation, eating disorders, women's rights, processing abuse & trauma, etc. Some are just making intrusive thoughts rhyme, some are just thinking about a situation differently or applying metaphoric meaning to life's little moments. I try to come to some kind of resolution in each poem or reframe my way of thinking by the end of them. A lot of it is pretty dang personal, so...if you know me, no you don't. I started journaling and writing poetry when I was being gaslit a ton in an abusive relationship in college. It was a way to keep track of interactions that I was later told never happened. Now, it's just how I process things. It helps me get it out my system or look at the situation differently. Sometimes I can't sort out my own feelings until I try to write it out. My brain likes to work in way too many metaphors. Thanks for reading! Hope it helps you sort out some feelies, too.

A short poem i wrote about my experiences working in mental health.

just a vent book, you don't have to read. very long rants/vents about certain things. also for my friends to know what's happening in my life. trigger warnings will be at the top of every page.

It's my experience of what anxiety feels like.

TW: This is a story about a suicidal kid who's dream is to die but they/them is to scared if it fails. It can go quite deep in the end and i will try to make more parts off it. The reason why i am making this stort is because alot off people struggle with things like this and i hope i can help people with this. Feel free to screen so you can explain yourself better:) Stay safe guys I love you <3 Also don't forget to let me know your thoughts about my story:) There will be more parts/chapters if you guys would like:)

This is a book about all the poems I have written

Across continents and cultures, one truth lingers in the shadows: those who hurt the most are often the most silenced. In a world where suicide is still taboo, survivors are shunned, judged, or erased. But in the quiet corners of Ghana, India, the Philippines, and beyond, voices are beginning to rise-shaky, soft, but unshakably real. This is the story of Naledi a girl abused by so called family member... Kojo, a Ghanaian barber accused of dark rituals and broken by betrayal. Of Meera, an Indian college girl suffocated by pressure and shame. Of Kara, a girl in the Philippines whose scars are hidden behind school uniforms and forced smiles. And Zoe, a Black British teen navigating cultural expectations in a Western world that doesn't quite see her. And many more... Woven through diary entries, unsent letters, whispered prayers, and spoken word poems, We See You is a raw and reverent tribute to those who've danced on the edge-and lived to tell it. It's a call to break the silence. To listen. To see the ones we pretend not to notice. To say, out loud: Your pain matters. Your story matters. You still matter. This book crosses borders-not just geographical, but emotional. And in every language, every country, every soul-hope still speaks. ---

fighting against toys, hands linked by strings, a puppet with a mind controlled by the heart, chained to our own mind. loraeve © 2021 03-07-2021 ― #3 in POETRYCOLLECTION