Writing or recording stories isn’t always easy, but they can often prompt powerful responses, help those affected or even change attitudes. If you are comfortable with Our Time publishing your story online, we would love to hear from you. We also give you the option of submitting stories under another name if you do not want to share your identity.
What stories does Our Time need?
We’re looking for stories which cover parental mental illness from any angle. From researchers working in the field, to a parent or a young person directly affected, or an adult reflecting on previous experiences, all your contributions are valuable and we want to hear from you.
What happens after I’ve submitted my story?
After you’ve submitted a story using the online form below, all our stories are checked thoroughly before publishing. There’s a chance we will edit the content of your story but we’ll be sure to let you approve the final version before we publish it.
If you want us to publish a vlog we will email you after you’ve submitted your form to explain the process of sharing your film.
Publishing your story
We don’t have comments enabled on the website but we do share content on social media (Facebook and Twitter). We feel it’s important for people to share their opinions and experiences, but we also want to ensure conversation remains respectful and on topic, so we do moderate comments from time to time.
Tips and advice
- Don’t feel like you have to start at the beginning of your blog, article or story – you can always come back to this part at the end. Write what comes most naturally to you to begin with.
- If you are writing a story about your individual opinions or experiences in relation to parental mental illness, bear in mind that these may differ to other people’s. Honesty and self-expression are fine as long as they are in the context of your own experiences, and not generalising the attitudes of others.
- If you find it difficult to write exactly what you want to say or you find the words aren’t flowing, don’t worry too much. We can help with this. Alternately you could consider recording a vlog if you feel more comfortable talking.