I have my own struggles with my mental health, more specifically with anxiety. I recently wrote this poem. You blind me, you chase me, You choke me, you race me, You may never ever go away
There is a place inside all of us that we long to visit, a place left unattended since childhood and a place that contains the forgotten treasures of our distracted and worried adult heart
Upcoming Irish spoken word artist and comedian, Kevin Pigott loves to explore the power of words (and humour in his comedy) to convey the importance of human connection and healing along with simply recognising the potency of our words
Finding mindfulness and creativity with photography
A few years ago, after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer and being successfully treated, I began to take stock and decided to retire from the job I loved, for my health’s sake
Today, I choose to sit down with this pain, and not avoid it in all the usual ways. I wish to feel it and lie down with it in the forgotten meadow of the past
Look at the tree, Deep rooted in the ground, Not fighting the wind, Just swaying around. Look at the sea, Constant and strong, Lapping on shores, Never stays in too long
How to feel better about yourself – trauma recovery drawings
Michael Davitt is an author and artist focusing primarily on mental health issues
I’ve loved music from day one, like most of us I suppose. I remember when I realized that I could write my own and it was the first time I ever really felt I had expressed the pain that was inside me
The terrible two with claws in deep They make us err and make us weep Who have us toss and turn at night When pulses race, and chests get tight The first prevents you being your best
The psychologists have been told to survey my psyche. They’re trying to see if my mind is a mountain range full of jagged precipices or a desert, bare boned and dry. They begin topographically, looking at the contours
Feminism, eroticism and mental health
My practice is an intertwinement of feminism, eroticism and mental health, developing a connection with a feminine audience by investigating the deep psychological connections between all three fields
When they tell you you’ve had a nervous breakdown you become like an astronaut you find yourself drifting, pleading for someone to provide you with the right equipment
Power in Silence: ‘Northern Star’
Do true stories really have clean arcs with a beginning, middle and end? Or do our lives feel more like just a series of rooms, with open-ended ideas and unresolved tension?
My artistic practice mainly consists of large-scale watercolour pieces, photography, and performance. In my practice, I examine the intimate relationships we form throughout our lives
I use mainly photography and overpainting to achieve what I need. They reflect the darkness that nips at my heels and allow me to process my feelings
Hugging my Gestalt Psychotherapist Goodbye I give you a candle In exchange for switching on my inner flame When I had no fuel Left Like a long legged Giraffe stuck in a hole No way to climb out
Robbie is suffering; broken by a pain nobody ever saw… and he’s ready to give up. A Broken Light is Thomas’s third short film produced for exhibition and online publication. Through his current and recent work
Over the last four years I’ve struggled with my mental health.... my emotions, my appearance, my self pity and self worth, the whys and why not’s, the “who am I?”, the “where am I going?” and I wanted and needed to open up
I meditate in the mornings on a tree outside my bedroom window. I see sometimes one or two birds, magpies or blackbirds perched on the branches. All the branches twiggling out from one hoof thick log
Art making and creating an image have been with me since I was a toddler. I had my art space, art materials and I somehow understood I could use it as a container, a silent witness, my best friend
Working with Brazilian photographer Nayara Leite we worked on this project when we both lived in Queenstown, New Zealand. The series is called 'I am Seán' and contains 8 photos of me
This video contains 2 poems, one about depression and the other about manic. The 2 poems alternate between each other every 2 verses to mirror the changing shifts in mood one can experience with affected by bipolar disorder
Have you ever had an itch that you just can't scratch? Like my own psychological plaster cast, Or have you faked a smile behind which envy hides, I've “always been the bridesmaid - never been the bride”
Jane McCormick is a visual artist based in Cavan, and recently exhibited Not Half Right in the University of Atypical Gallery in Belfast. The work in Not Half Right exhibition is a disjointed narrative of the artist chronically ill life
At the core of it, I love art because my dad taught me. He passed away when I was nine but in those years he thought me so many important life lessons. I have applied each one of these lessons to art and that has made me whom I am
A painting, like our personal identity, is composed by a series of layers that interact and influence one another. At the bottom lies the unconscious mind, the fundamental layer of our true self
Its much easier than talking to someone
My mediums are primarily writing. Especially mental health. Then painting. Painting is new to me. I've a family full of artists but I never took it up until I lost someone
My name is Robert, and I draw sort of sketchy cartoons and write stories that are half set in the day-to-day world and half out of it. As someone who's on the autistic spectrum and has had mental health issues
“Sometimes You Just Do Not Have The Words”
My name is SJ and I paint to as a means of emotional expression and to support my mental health. I have always doodled, sketched and journelled
The Fandangoe Kid’s work is about creating platforms for open conversations about difficult and complex subject matters. Her work took this direction following the loss of almost all of her family in 2011
Joe Caslin, behind the scenes of Waterford Walls
Joe Caslin’s incredible collaboration with A Lust for Life, Pieta House and Waterford Walls in Waterford to confront the stigma around mental health
Music, Mental Health & Minding Yourself: A Ramble
On 18th May, 2017, rock and roll lost one of its greats, Chris Cornell. To be honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about Chris Cornell at this time
We have a duality to ourselves, the us we show the world and the us we keep to ourselves. Though the paintings are not specifically about mental health, they are about the human condition and all it entails
We live in a world where many suffer from mental illness, an issue that is not always physically seen but can be wholly as present as any other issue. We live in a nation where a new international study has criticised Ireland for its lack of reform
I lost my job in 2016 due to mental health problems and around that time realised I had a desire to draw even though it was never something I was good at. I started to write quotes on tiles and plates and draw little images for them
Helium Arts is Ireland’s children’s arts and health charity. We support children struggling with the social and emotional challenges of long-term illness or disability through a range of creative arts programmes
Sometimes life is completely overwhelming. Music has always helped me to manage my thoughts when I can't articulate how I am feeling as I just stick on a track and crank up the volume
Violet Dempsey – “Inspired by Kokoro”
My work explores and investigates interconnectivity. How we make creative connections and how we identify the potential to connect within the world we live in both locally and globally
Barry Murphy – Part Mark-Making, Part Action-Painting
I began painting two years ago as a last 'try anything' resort to help me cope with depression as I had been suffering for a couple of years
At its core, the song is about personal experiences of shame and sense of failure when met with rejection, especially when trying to find a partner in life. The particular moment that inspired Mark McHale (vocals)
This painting is based on the theme of spirituality, specifically yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. It focuses on illustrating the inner strength of people and how we are stronger than we may think
Jim O’Donoghue Martin, Video Blue: ‘Reviver’
My name is Jim O'Donoghue Martin, and I make music as Video Blue. I'm from Dundalk, but based in Hackney, east-London
Michelle Harton: Exploring Emotions and Memories
I feel art is about a person’s connection with a piece, the emotions and memories, conscious or unknown from this life or another that are briefly unlocked
A Lust for Life and Joe Caslin present: When Words Fail
A celebration of creativity and mental health. At A Lust for Life, we’re big believers in creativity – in making stuff
