Healing in Public: What Happens When Your Recovery Isn’t Private Anymore
Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes Summary What happens when healing becomes visible? Whether you’ve spoken about your story on social media, in therapy, or even to close friends, public recovery can be empowering, but it’s not always easy. This post explores what it really feels like to “heal out loud,” especially for marginalized individuals who may face extra scrutiny when they do. The Vulnerability Hangover: Sharing My Mental Health Story Publicly Have you ever shared something vulnerable, then panicked afterward? The first time I spoke publicly about my mental health struggles, I felt proud. Then I felt exposed. I wondered: Did I say too much? Will people treat me differently now? That familiar fear of judgment crept back in, even though I thought I had made peace with it. There’s a strange paradox in recovery: you spend years hiding the pain, and then one day, you decide to speak it aloud, and the world feels a little too quiet afterward. I remember the first...