Semicolon Project

“A semicolon is used when the author could have ended the sentence but chose to continue it. You are the author and the sentence is your life.”

The semicolon project is a global tattoo movement for people who have survived a mental health crisis. This is for people who have thought about ending their life, have tried doing so, or just have these thoughts come into their head that they can’t control; for people who have struggled for so long they struggle to keep going everyday. The semicolon project was originally just an awareness about mental health run by Project Semicolon founded in 2013, 10 years after the founders father committed suicide. People started to get tattoos of them to help them cope with living their life, and to remind themselves that “their sentence isn’t over”.

Sometimes when life gets me down and I am not okay in the moment I look at my tattoo and remember that I will march forward in life. Your anxiety does not define who you are as a person, you may be a very angsty person or severely depressed but that is not YOU! That is behavior exhibited by you due to altered chemistry in your brain.  I have struggled with anxiety, ADHD, and depression for 12 years; I have resorted to therapy once a week for those 12 years and I still need it. Anxiety grows with you but it gets easier to handle the stress your mind and life throw at you. Laying up for all hours of the night with the feeling of suffocation and your mind racing doesn’t make you who you are, how you decide to handle it does.

I have thought about ending it multiple times and I have tried more than once. I used to think I was a coward for not doing it when in reality, not doing it each time made me stronger than I ever have been before. The years of medication helped but now at 18 years old, I am not taking any medication and I am still here. I didn’t think I was strong enough for this world and sometimes I still feel that way but I have survived 100% of all my bad days and you have too. It really is hard to see the light in the darkness of your depression but remember you are a flame, and a flame burns brighter in the dark.

(for more on project semicolon click here)