Share your story

People affected by mental illness are at the heart of everything we do. If you have lived with mental illness for years, have been newly diagnosed, care for someone or just want to know more about a condition, we publish real stories from people with lived experience every week. 

We always aim to amplify the voices of those we support. If you’re interested in sharing your lived experience story with us, then we'd like to hear from you!

Sharing your lived experience with us can:

• Inspire others
• Raise awareness of a condition
• Challenge stigma
• Promote your own self-esteem and healing journey

In our mission to challenge stigma, we’re especially looking to hear from people who either experience schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar or personality disorder, or care for someone who does.

Similarly, we’re particularly keen on hearing from ethnic minoritised communities, people from the LGBTQIA+ community and anyone who has accessed our groups and/or services.

We’re really honoured to hear your story. We receive a high number of requests and may not be able to respond to all of them, but we will contact you to let you know if we are going to take your story forwards.

Content submission guidelines:

• Stories on our website must be original and previously unpublished
• We cannot advertise or endorse books
• We cannot accept guest blogs or sponsored content
• We cannot link to blogs that are hosted away from our own site

How can you share your story with Rethink Mental Illness?

You can share as little or as much as you'd like:

• Through a blog for our website and social media channels
• With the media (local or national press, TV, radio)
• For awareness campaigns
• For fundraising appeals

How will we support you when sharing your story?

We want you to share your experience as comfortably as possible. It may be useful to think about how much you’re happy to share with the public and how much you’d rather keep private. Thinking about your boundaries will make sharing your story a positive, safe and healing experience.

We will support you throughout the process by making sure we have your consent before sharing your story anywhere and ensuring you are involved in each step of the way, from capturing the story to editing it. We can also offer anonymity for people who would like to share under an alias.

If you’d like to withdraw your personal story at any point, please let us know and we can act accordingly.

Working with the media

We understand sharing your lived experience with the press might feel like a daunting prospect. This is why our friendly and approachable media team will help you prepare, supporting you before and after each media opportunity. Read here to find out more.

Get in touch!

Please complete our expression of interest form if you’re interested in getting involved. We look forward to hearing from you!