This creative panel of artists is a chance for us to express our everyday struggles with Mental Health issues and to show them from our perspective in a way that is freeing and opens the door to a stronger understanding of others and ourselves.

While mental health has become a widely discussed topic across fields such as sports, the arts, and academia, it is still frequently approached from the perspective of outside observers analyzing the experiences of others. These perspectives often come from people who witness and sympathize with the struggles they see in strangers, public figures, or loved ones. While such responses are often compassionate and well-intentioned, they can sometimes feel more like pity to those living within that neurodivergent world. The distance between observers and those who experience struggles can unintentionally reinforce the idea that mental health struggles are something to be studied rather than living realities.

Creative expression offers a powerful way to bridge this divide. Through poetry, fiction, and memoir, artists can provide a window into the internal landscapes of mental health in ways that analysis alone cannot. Creative work invites readers into the lived experience of anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, and other mental health conditions, allowing for empathy grounded in voice and experience rather than observation.

This panel will bring together three or four creative writers in-person who have used their art to explore and express their own relationships with mental health. Panelists will discuss how writing functions not only as a creative practice but also as a means of articulation, reflection, and connection. They will share insights into how storytelling, metaphor, and personal narrative can translate experiences that are often difficult to communicate in everyday conversation. It will offer those who share similar struggles an opportunity to see their experiences reflected in creative work, while also inviting audiences to engage with mental health through the immediacy that creative writing can provide.