Retold & Reclaimed

About Retold & Reclaimed

In India, mental illness is still considered taboo and many people refuse to acknowledge it as a valid and serious condition. Retold & Reclaimed is about making a hidden population visible, giving a voice to the silenced and bringing areas clouded by stigma to light.

Retold & Reclaimed is a collection of stories, narratives, essays, poems, sketches and paintings by the clients and therapists at Seraniti. They portray their personal battles and victories with mental health issues.

We, as mental health professionals, are moved and inspired by the stories our clients share with us every single day. We are amazed by their strength, resiliency and ability to be vulnerable and trust us. We recognize how difficult it is to navigate a tedious mental health system and seek help often with no support from family or friends.

We hope that their stories and art will help you understand mental health issues and empathize with their struggles and pain. For those of you who have had similar experiences, we hope these stories will give you hope and the strength to keep fighting.

Many of you may never know what it feels like to constantly second guess yourself, to question reality or to be in the midst of darkness and despair. These narratives and artwork will give you an insight into the feelings, thoughts and experiences of a diverse set of individuals dealing with a wide range of problems.

For our clients who have decided to contribute, we hope it was an empowering experience to share your stories with other people and be an agent of change and movement. It is not easy to reveal the most difficult moments of your life to strangers on the internet.

For your courage, we applaud you.

Thank you,

Team Seraniti

Looney

Everyone is talking but I have no intention of listening. Words merge into other sounds and fade into the background. There is music. I lounge contentedly in the smell of cupcakes and the warmth of a happy, lazy Sunday. I like the quiet. The conversation ...

Me vs. Anxiety

ILLUSTRATED BY SAMBITA MODAK ...

Discovery

...

A letter to the reader

Dear Reader, Welcome. I am writing this letter to you because I want you to know that whatever it is you are going through right now: personally, professionally, emotionally or spiritually, you can, and you will, go through it and move ahead in your life. The r ...

Grave Digger

Fickle, Like a flame I die With the wind. Reborn again, Against your skin. Fainter, Fading, Struggling To get in – Leave a mark, A memory That won’t fade, An imprint On your brain, A stubborn stain, A cut – Deep enough To remain. The ...

Untitled

If you had asked me just 7 months ago to type out this note on how I feel, on a Thursday’s midnight, my words would quite certainly have painted a very different picture. 7 months further back from then, I was closer to how I feel today, mostly calm and ...

Silence is gold they say

Silence is gold they say It may be gold It may be pure It may be beautiful But for some It’s a lot more For some Silence is a curse Silence is lying Silence is hiding Silence is surviving It takes courage to break silence It takes courage t ...

Untitled

A few years ago, I sat in a hostel room, and thought very very hard about all the problems in my life. Each solution I came up with created a different kind of problem. I progressed along the path, working my way through each potential solution, trying to plug ...

No, Please, Not Again

At the bottom of an ocean clear and blue There are ragged rocks and ﬁshes few Where an evil jellyﬁsh lurks alone And haunts my mind unseen, unknown It raised its head! My heart skipped a beat I paused mid-step in the middle of the street The monst ...

Soulmate

It runs deep Deep into the soul Deep into the caverns of the clan. Its lineage since existence. Always on the prowl Hunting for the one Vulnerable and welcoming. Knocking on the thinner walls Feeding on negatives. To find an easy entrance. To make a home ...