A Hidden Community

‘A Hidden Community’ depicts volunteers – a mixture of friends and strangers, who each courageously shared their stories and encouraged others – ‘A Hidden Community’ portrays how we live in a hidden community where mental health doesn’t discriminate.

Of her work, Jennifer says, ‘The common denominator for those in my photographs to come forward was to help others. Anyone, anywhere at any time can be affected by mental health issues and everyone’s story is different. The subjects chosen are all diverse to demonstrate this.

Debbie

‘Before I knew I was pregnant I started to feel ill. I've always been a bit nauseous, but this was different. The day I went down to London for a training course I was ill on the train, feeling horrendous. I remember lying on the platform at the tube station, being sick into a paper cup with people stepping over me like I was some tramp’.

Alisa

‘Being told by teachers you can't read or write very well compared to your classmates imprints on you, so I found a mechanism to try to hide away. I’d be like be a squid and just go into a teeny space. I would crawl my shoulders in’.

Seona

“I had a sort of nervous breakdown; I have always had a stressful life even growing up but I have always coped. I didn't understand why all of a sudden I fell to bits. I was suicidal”.

Dorothy

“The best thing that's happened to me is having mental illness, because I would not be who I am now without it. It's made me a better doctor, person, mother and friend”.

JJ

“Riding the bike to its limit gives me a rush of fear, adrenaline, relief and a feeling of complete freedom. Pushing beyond my comfort zone improves me as a rider but also gives me self-confidence. If I had to sell my bike tomorrow, I would be absolutely devastated”.

Jim

“I was behaving like I had a death wish, I needed adrenaline, going out looking for violence. Then the charities Combat Stress and Help for Heroes turned my life around”.

Fiona

“You’re not sleeping, you lose confidence, you have brain fog, you can’t remember what you’re meant to be doing and you just get lower and lower, then sometimes you think it would be easier if you weren’t here”.

John

“I was feeling good then after starting Uni My granny died and I kept feeling like I was in this hole, no matter how hard I tried to scramble out, I just kept sinking further and further. In October I tried to commit suicide”.

Sarah

“The crisis comes when I suffer burnout. To have an ADHD diagnosis would validate my whole being, It would answer all the questions I’ve had my whole life, I would stop constantly doubting myself and beating myself up”.

Sarah

Katy

“I’ve seen me on bad days, mid-workout, bursting into tears, crying in the middle of the workout, with Cross Fit I feel like I just found my home. Picking up a barbell has made me mentally and physically strong”.

Heather

“The depression comes in waves, I feel so fragile, any confrontation totally screws me up, to the point where I feel sick. Just one person, that’s all it takes”.

Graham

“I was already severely **** up in the head due to a tough abusive childhood when I was prescribed a highly addictive painkiller for an abscess on my tooth. It was in the middle of the opioid crisis (which we didn't realise was happening at the time). For three years I just sent in repeat prescriptions, they didn't ask why I was asking for them, the doctors just kept giving me the meds”.

Elaine

“Sometimes I feel like I live with symptoms of undiagnosed PTSD, but the only difference is my trauma hasn't ended. Anxiety can take over and you find a way of putting on armour to deal with it. There is an isolation because you find that you're so raw”.

Erin

“After I finished high school, I took a gap year to focus on music and help provide care for my younger sister, who is chronically ill. Watching my sister’s health deteriorate affected my mental health; I felt survivor’s guilt and felt I was abandoning her by being healthy”.

Georgia

‘“I first got sick when I was 15 which had a big knock-on effect to my mental health,

It was intense going from being able-bodied to chronically ill, which happened very quickly. I was bed bound; it took years to get the full diagnosis.

One of the hardest parts has been the social aspect of it all, dealing with people who don't understand, it was like I stopped existing. It was painful figuring out where the threshold of other people's boredom for my illness was. There's not enough kindness”.

Jeff

“Later I decided to buy a pub and it failed in twelve months. I lost £120,000 investment and I was £60,000 in debt. As that started to fail those first things that people tell you as a child stick in your mind. I tried to take my own life one night. After I closed up the pub I tried to drive my car off a bridge, but I missed”.

Emma

‘“My issues started when I was about 13. I had a lot of childhood trauma, my dad being bipolar, it was a volatile home. Around thirteen years of age I started self-harming and having emotional issues. It all came to a head when I was 15 and I just kept attempting suicide, I was in and out of hospital”.

Nathan

“I wasn't speaking to anyone my mental health. What mental health? I wasn't processing it. Because I was making weight all the time, I started to pick up this OCD-like behaviour, adding up my calories, subtracting how many I've burned, checking my weight. It was beyond ‘organised’, it was obsessive. It consumed my thoughts from the moment I woke, until I could fall asleep”.

Jane

‘“When I enter a church, I wander around looking at the stained glass, and think about the people who came to find solace, comfort, joy, and all the lived histories of those that have been in the buildings. I sit in a pew and the issues that cause me anxiety fall away”.

Ellie

“Acting for me allows for a vital freedom of expression in a society that generally censors or stifles strong emotions. It is taking a mask off rather than putting one on“.