Autobiographical Work About Mental Illness

[Tina.Kamira]

hey everyone! for the last few years, I’ve been working on a semi-autobiographical art project about my experiences with mental illness. My aim is to help people who are in the same positions that I was, and also to help myself understand what I want through in my life, I have both been abused by others and have been in the position of the abuser. so in my art project, I want to both include details about the relationships that hurt me and the people that I hurt as well. I was wondering if this would be sinful in any way? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be, because A. I’m not including any real names or incriminating details about the people who abused me and B. I don’t think it’s sinful to make your own sins public, is it? I think that my story and experiences can help a lot of people, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t committing any sins in doing so. thank you everyone

 

[Anrakyr]

I want to both include details about the relationships that hurt me and the people that I hurt as well. I was wondering if this would be sinful in any way?

Its not. You are not elevating the negativity.

thank you everyone

I think it’s important you do this. Often times mental illness feels like we are back discovering real medicine. We are leaving the leeches of old mental health in the past. We need to hear stories.

 

[Tina.Kamira]

thank you so much!! I totally agree, more personal stories about mental illness need to be told in order to educate the general public about what it’s like thank you so much for your support!

 

[Tina.Kamira]

just bumping this

 

[EmilyAlexandra]

just bumping this

I don’t think that you have to bump a thread because it hasn’t received any replies for half an hour!

A. I’m not including any real names or incriminating details about the people who abused me

Presumably the accused have not been convicted in a criminal court or otherwise admitted liability? If guilt has been proven, I don’t see any requirement to protect their anonymity. Also, you cannot, generally speaking, defame somebody who is dead.

B. I don’t think it’s sinful to make your own sins public, is it?

Presumably not. However, you may want to take care that victims are kept anonymous. This means withholding names, of course, but it also means avoiding “jigsaw identification”, i.e. where you don’t name somebody, but you provide enough information to allow somebody to be identified all the same.

 

[stuartbrianhenlis]

Tina,

Thank you for posting! We need to hear more stories from survivors like you. Do it and I wish you success!

 

[Tina.Kamira]

No legal action has been taken either from me or against me! The people in my life I’m writing about are people such as family members, friends, and ex-boyfriends, and the abuse was mostly emotional, so I’m not really going into detail about the identities of the other people involved beyond a “there was a guy I dated junior year, let’s call him Adam”.

Thank you for your support!

 

[Tina.Kamira]

Thank you!