Submit Your Story

Share your story of school phobia: A How-to Guide for Digital Storytelling (8 minutes)

Guidelines

We welcome both person-first language and identity-first language: see link here.

If you cite a study or statistic, please provide a link to the source.

Lived Experience Blog:

What if I want to submit my story but don’t want to use my real name?

We live in a world that actively discriminates against people with mental health disabilities. YMHC is committed to providing safety for young people and their families. We encourage families to use a variation of your real name (for example: middle name, last initial) or to write under a pseudonym to protect the privacy of their child. Please ensure that no details are given that could embarrass or isolate anyone, especially a young person. Identifiers regarding names, location, schools need to given with much thought to privacy.

If you are a youth submitting your lived experience of mental health, please be mindful of the possible consequences of disclosure.

General guidelines to consider before submitting your story:

  • Please be mindful and respectful when sharing information and details. The privacy of others is an important element of suicide prevention.
  • Tell your story through your own perspective: your thoughts, feelings, learnings, experiences.
  • Each experience of mental health is unique. Mental health challenges are complex, impacting individuals and families in diverse ways. Helps us understand your experience.
  • Use respectful language. If your post is critical, which it can be, it should also be constructive.
  • YMHC encourages the use of person-first language and/or identity-first language https://ymhc.ngo/resources/people-first-language/
  • If you cite a study or statistic, please provide a link to the source.
  • The purpose of sharing your lived experience is to help others understand how mental health disabilities affect the functioning of all people in a family. At the same time, shared stories help others to not feel alone and feel hopeful. Provide your experiences with learnings, messages of hope and support and thoughts on needed actions.

Please be mindful about the following:

Sharing lived experience of mental health and suicide attempts and loss whilst understanding the impact of language, the importance of inspiring hope and encouraging messages of support requires a delicate balance.

  • Suicide: It’s okay to talk about suicide including attempts and loss but please do not give information about methods.
  • Self-harm: It’s okay to talk about self-harm but please do not give information about methods or other details.
  • Use our information on language as a reference: https://ymhc.ngo/resources/people-first-language/

As a reminder, we edit articles and their titles for length, clarity, and our own editorial guidelines. For example, this might mean your title will be changed or a certain language will be removed. If we feel we’ve made significant enough changes or altered your original tone, we’ll run it by you first. We never want to misrepresent your voice or message.