Why are You Here: What is The Health Collective?
The Health Collective is a place for stories, original reportage, art and comics around Mental Health and Mental Illness, from an India lens. Edited by journalist and writer Amrita Tripathi (that’s me), the site is meant to be a safe space, a harbour for us to think about, examine, talk about and excavate some complicated things. Some things are simple — hard to believe, but true. Things like: You are not alone. Whatever you’re going through right now, as you scroll through this, even if things seem insurmountable, and no one around you in your immediate circle gets you, just remember that you are #NotAlone.
What’s on here, exactly? We have more than 400 posts here (446 to be exact) that include first person stories, original reportage, ‘Ask the Expert’ columns, Art and Comics, Affirmations, as well as a list of India Helplines, and some Resources. We’ve just gotten started in Voice and in Hindi, with more to come in 2022.
Here you will read incredibly moving first-person accounts, stories of lived experiences, stories of battles fought, won, fought again, you’ll see some profound wisdom via comics and art and Affirmations for those moments where we forget some things or need to unlearn some other things — but overall, the aim of this site is to be a friendly, safe space to discuss all things to do with Mental Health and Mental Illness. Do feel free to drop us a line (or more) and let us know if we’re succeeding. (Tweet @healthcollectif)
Where to start: You can actually start anywhere. Are you looking for specific information on a condition like Depression or Anxiety? Are you looking for stories on dealing? Do you want to watch some videos of chats we’ve had? Do you want to peruse our Ask the Experts series? Maybe a series on The Pandemic and Loneliness? Our Comics and Art? Feel free to Bookmark, take a break, come back, Share, spread the word.
Who are ‘we’? A motley crew – you’ll find more about us on this page, and across the site (both being updated as of Jan 2022).
How we operate: We will always aim to be empathetic and open – to learning, discussing, sharing. I (Amrita) and my partner at The Collectif (Abhishek) and each of our contributors and advisors are committed to this safe space and believe in the power of story-telling, and the power of community (our tribe).
We do pay all contributors for their blogs, columns, art and comics, except for those who waive their fees, first-person stories (based on a psychologist’s advice), or pieces that have appeared elsewhere. How do we do it? So far we have had a mix of funding (Content syndication, personal funding, book advances via the Mindscape book series published by Simon & Schuster India) and most recently, in 2021 via patrons of the site. We will have to get more creative if we want to keep going in 2022 and will think of new options (feel free to share your suggestions including if you’d be open to subscribing to a paid newsletter etc).
You can also support us and our mission by buying any of the books (The Mindscape series includes: Real Stories of Dealing with Depression, Young Mental Health and Age of Anxiety, co-authored with Arpita Anand, Meera Haran Alva and Kamna Chhibber), spreading the word, ordering some of our gift postcards and Affirmations or sharing an amount of your choosing here via Instamojo if you are in India.
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