Will the book be on screen? Thanks. Kathleen

A community collage of survival, creativity, healing, and truth • May 2026 May is Mental Health Month, and it felt like the perfect time to begin creating something together as a community: a digital Unlock Psych zine called Out of Their Grip. (I'm calling it that because my initial idea for a cover illustration featured a pair of grippy socks!) For anyone unfamiliar, a zine is a community-made DIY magazine filled with creative expression, writing, art, reflections, and shared experiences. Zines are often deeply personal, raw, funny, emotional, political, healing, or all of the above at once. They’re a way for people to tell their stories in their own words and create something meaningful together. This will be a digital zine created by our community and shared online so everyone can contribute to and experience it together. We may not finish this by the end of May, and that’s okay. What matters is that we start. The process itself can be cathartic, connective, and powerful. I think there’s something healing about seeing our experiences side by side and recognizing that we are not alone in what we’ve survived. My hope is that this can become an annual Unlock Psych Mental Health Month project — and next year we can start earlier and maybe even have a completed zine ready by the end of May. 🌱 I would LOVE submissions from the Unlock Psych community. This can be serious, funny, artistic, emotional, messy, reflective, hopeful, angry, creative — whatever feels real to you. Some ideas for submissions: • Poetry • Digital art or hand-drawn art • Photography • Collages • Meaningful quotes or mantras you love • Reflections about your experiences in Unlock Psych meetings • Reflections about psychiatric hospitalization or hospital trauma • Thoughts about healing, mental health, growth, recovery, or survival • Funny reviews of the worst psych hospital experiences you’ve had • Lists of things you wish psych hospitals actually had to make them helpful • Recipes for your favorite “first meal home” after getting out of the hospital

I really meant to go to the meeting last Monday, but I ended up falling asleep. I have had a migraine every single day for the past three weeks. The only time I don't have a migraine is either really late at night at like two or three in the morning, or very early when I first wake up, around five or 6 AM. And I have a freelance job I have to do if I want to be able to pay for my pain doctor and get pain medicine. So I've had to use the little time I don't have a headache to work, and because of that, I've barely been sleeping. The rheumatoid arthritis is also causing me a lot of pain. A lot of the time, I can't sleep because of the pain in my knees. I'm trying to do the best I can to cope. I think about suicide a lot. I even planned it out. But today, I resolved not to do it. I have wonderful friends – really, really wonderful friends, and I know they love me deeply. They would be devastated if I killed myself. I want to be brave. I want to be able to endure the pain so they don't have to endure it. I don't want to be in pain, but I don't want to give my pain to my loved ones either. Anyway, I haven't been to many meetings lately because I always either have a headache or am too tired to function. I'm going to try to make it this Monday if I can. The last time I joined a meeting on Skool, I couldn't get the audio to work so I left. Maybe I'll have better luck on Monday. If I can manage to go.

This space is for what can’t always be said directly. Share your art, your writing, your poetry, your music, your sketches—anything that helps you express your inner world. Whether it’s raw, unfinished, messy, or something you feel proud of, it all belongs here. Creative expression can be a way to process, to reclaim your voice, to witness yourself, and to be witnessed by others. I also wanted to share that I make a lot of designs—stickers, t-shirts, and more—and I genuinely love doing it. I recently got a thermal sticker printer and it’s been so much fun bringing my designs to life. Right now they’re black and white only, but if you’d ever like some stickers sent your way, let me know. 🤍 I’m also working toward getting a larger printer so I can create 4x6 prints and eventually open an Etsy focused on mental health art. If you ever want to check out what I’m working on, I have a store page here: https://unlockpsych.com/unlock-psych-store/ You don’t need to explain your work unless you want to. You can let it speak for itself, or share what it means to you. When responding to others, receive their work with care. Honor the vulnerability it takes to share. This is a space to create, to feel, and to be seen. 🤍