On the Soapbox: Petra d'Huy ...
More than four in 10 people have had a mental illness at some point in their lives. The stigma, especially self-stigma, is great. Petra d'Huy (49) knows all about it. She founded a foundation and wrote a book about her recovery.
"In 1999 I suffered my first psychosis; a year later I was found to have bipolar disorder. The shame felt perhaps even heavier than the diagnosis itself. Now I write about it. With my work I try to help people, because it can make you feel so lonely when you hear that you have a mental illness, then suddenly you are a psychiatric patient.
Don't carry your mental illness with you secretly. Sharing is healing. Talk about it, be open. The moment you make yourself vulnerable, the other person will too. And you will learn from that too, because a conversation with another person is an introduction to yourself, I always say.
It's not easy to talk about it, openness is a process of years. But by opening up in my blog and book, I have found that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I get a lot of positive feedback. These have strengthened me in the realization that you are not just a patient. I am bipolar, but also mother, daughter, friend, neighbor, wife, webmaster and author. Hence Petra Etcetera. This is the name of my foundation as well as the title of my book. Last year I won the PZC Publieksprijs with it. I put the money, five hundred euros, into my foundation. To be able to help even more people.
Petra Etcetera is published by Tobi Vroegh Publishers of De Regenboog Groep. Lea van Geesink: "It is always the ánother person who gets a psychosis, we think. But anyone can get a psychosis, even after a jet lag. With our publishing house, which is run by volunteers, we want to make psychiatry salonable*. Petra has succeeded very well in this as far as we are concerned. She shows that you are more than your disorder." Go to www.petraetcetera.com or www.tobivroegh.nl if you want to learn more.
* Psychiatry as a negotiable, socially acceptable topic
Text: Nicolline van der Spek I Photography: privately owned Petra