Authenticity Speaks Volumes: Stacy Pershall

Stacy Pershall on how authenticity saves lives.

If you are even slightly interested in writing, or have or know someone who has a mental illness, you must watch this interview. Seventeen years ago, Stacy attempted suicide, due in part to maladaptive reckoning with borderline personality disorder. Wonderfully, she no longer exhibits diagnostic criteria for BPD, and has turned her life around to help others who feel hopeless live their life fully. She shares how veering away from her authentic self put her in a tragic place, but coming back to her authentic self literally saved her life. In this conversation, we talk about:

• Active Minds, stigma around mental health

• Suicide prevention

• Overcoming borderline personality disorder

• EMDR trauma therapy

• Anxiety

• Dialectical behavior therapy

• Baptist/evangelical upbringing

• Rage and abandonment

• Her suicide attempt

• Her memoir: Loud in the House of Myself

• Gotham writers workshop

• Writing and book doctoring

• Feeling uncomfortable in your own skin

• Memoir as an authentic reflection

• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

• The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick

• Fan-girling

• Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers

• NaNoWriMo

• The importance of practice

• Drop-bears and phantom kangaroos

Stacy can be reached at Active Minds, and Gotham Writers Workshop. Here is her memoir's Facebook page. Follow Stacy on Twitter @loudinthehouse , and check out her Tumblr page. She contributes to The Mighty (a great resource for people with chronic disease and/or mental health issues). Click the image of the video below to watch the interview.