Wednesday 21 August 2013

The art of being different: combating stereotypes of disability

Chris Wright, now 32, has had depression and social anxiety since he was five and by the time he was 11, had attempted suicide three times. "I wouldn't wish a mental health disorder on anyone but I wouldn't change it… It's who I am," he says. "[But] I can count on one hand the people who will to talk to me about my problems."

It was this sense of stigma around mental health, particularly suicide, that inspired him to make a private snapshot of his life public and turn his childhood medical records into art.

Wright is one of over 500 contributors to Postcards from the Edges, a website and upcoming series of nationwide exhibitions that allows people with disabilities and mental health needs, their families and carers, to express what's important to them, using a single postcard. "That could be any 11-year-old boy [on those records]," he says of his entry "Welcome to my world… That could be you or somebody you know."

Full Article on Guardian Society

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