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The Peer Path Project

@thepeerpathproject

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Lived-experience-led education and professional development.
Reflections on care, power and practice.
with heart, with hope
@scarletroseivy

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however today finds you, you deserve care, compassion and support. on world mental health day, and every day 🫶🏼 by @thepeerpathproject

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5 days ago

today is world mental health day 🤍

i thought it might be meaningful to share five questions to reflect on when someone tells you they’re struggling. a little pause to consider what they need, what we bring to the conversation and how we can show up for them.

when someone tells us they’re struggling, it’s natural to want to make things better. sometimes we’re so focused on finding the right response that we miss what they’re actually asking of us.

taking a moment to notice our assumptions, our discomfort and our capacity can help us be more present in those conversations.

you don’t need a perfect answer. being willing to listen, ask rather than assume, and be honest about what you can offer matters <3 by @thepeerpathproject

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5 days ago

suicide prevention also exists in the way we treat people when there isn’t a campaign reminding us to care

keep posting, keep talking, keep checking in

just make sure the compassion behind those messages exists beyond september too

💜 by @thepeerpathproject

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19 days ago

the irony isn’t lost on me 🕺🏼

I might not be able to undo my experience, but i can be loud enough that someone else gets a different one <3 by @thepeerpathproject

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22 days ago

tw - discussion of eating disorders and su!c!de

earlier this month was body image and eating disorders awareness week, with the theme ‘stories we’re sold about our bodies’. I’ve been thinking about what that means for me, and I wanted to share that, even if the week itself has passed. when I think about those stories, I think about the things I was promised, and how much I wanted to believe them.

we’re sold so many stories about what changing our bodies will give us. happiness, confidence, health, a better life. and somewhere along the way, it can become really hard to tell where those stories end and the eating disorder begins

“I’m just trying to eat clean.”
“everyone tracks what they eat.”

because before you even realise you’re unwell, there are already so many voices telling you that changing your body will make your life better.

and then anorexia becomes one of them, and it is so convincing

for me, every time the line moved, the illness moved with it. things you once would have recognised as frightening become normal. things you swore you would never do become justifiable. and the more it took from my life, the harder it became to imagine a life outside of it. at times, living at war with my body started to feel harder than not living at all.

that’s the part I want people to understand. beyond the physical consequences, there’s what it does to your thoughts, your world and your ability to see a way through.

anorexia has one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness.
people without anorexia are 18 times more likely to die by suicide compared to those without

with september also being suicide prevention month, I want to make room for that part of the conversation. because suicide prevention also means talking about the things that can make living feel unbearable

if you are reading this & are struggling - you deserve support before it gets to that point

Butterfly national helpline: 1800 33 4673
Lifeline: 13 11 14 by @thepeerpathproject

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24 days ago

we put a lot of responsibility on people in distress to be the ones who reach out.

but reaching out isn’t always simple. sometimes people don’t have the words. sometimes they’re afraid of what will happen if they tell someone. sometimes they’ve tried before and weren’t heard, believed or supported in the way they needed.

this isn’t about placing blame or suggesting there are always clear warning signs. it’s about challenging the assumption that not asking for help means not wanting it.

maybe we also need to ask whether we’ve made help feel safe, accessible and possible to receive.

if this brings anything up for you, lifeline is available on 13 11 14 <3
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#suicidepreventionmonth #suicidepreventionawareness #livedexperience #peerwork by @thepeerpathproject

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a month ago

eating disorders are so often reduced to food, weight and appearance. but what becomes visible is rarely the whole story.

for many people, eating disorder behaviours began by meeting a need, control, predictability, numbness, safety, relief from something that felt impossible to hold.

understanding why an eating disorder developed does not make it harmless. it helps us respond to the person with curiosity and compassion, rather than shame.

someone should not have to look unwell enough, lose everything or perfectly explain their pain before they are believed.

eating disorders make sense in context. and accessing support shouldn’t be reduced to a number or ‘look’ by @thepeerpathproject

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a month ago

it’s easy to use all the right words: trauma-informed, person-centred, lived-experience-led.

the harder part is making sure people on the receiving end can actually feel it.

these words should describe what we do and how we practice, not just how we talk about ourselves. Because if the care itself doesn’t change, they aren’t principles, they’re just branding

What makes the difference for you?
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#traumainformedcare #evidencebasedpractice #livedexperience #peersupport #mhsystem by @thepeerpathproject

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a month ago

nothing radical, just overdue 🤝
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#publichealth #livedexperience #peersupport #healthsystem #kindachic by @thepeerpathproject

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2 months ago

These is nothing glamorous about an illness that slowly steals your health, your relationships, your joy, all while convincing you that you’re “not sick enough.”

Every time I see this side of social media that romanticise restriction, malnourishment, and rigidity under the guise of “wellness,” I can’t help but think about the people we have lost and the people still fighting every single day

As someone who has lived through an eating disorder, I don’t want us to forgot the human cost of an illness that continues to take lives 🤍
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(repost because my perfectionism couldn’t handle the typo)
#mentalhealthadvocate #mentalhealthrecovery #livedexperience #peerwork by @thepeerpathproject

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3 months ago

09/02
There is no filter that makes a suicide attempt look pretty.

Two years ago today, my reality was intensive care. I was in a coma after trying to take my own life. It was rock bottom.

The kind of rock bottom people are terrified to talk about. The ugly side of mental health that doesn’t fit into an inspirational quote of sit comfortably in a recovery narrative.
It’s the cold, sterile reality of waking up when you didn’t plan to. It’s the anger, the confusion, and the exhaustion of having to build a life from below zero.

This is something not many people know about me and the choice to keep this private was apart of my own healing.
Being in a place now where I can share is not about reopening old wounds or asking for sympathy. It is about bearing witness to a reality that so many people survive quietly. It is about naming what is usually hidden, because silence is where mental illness does the most damage.

What was my rock bottom is now the foundation of my job. This contrast hold both grief and immense gratitude.

To those questioning their place in this world, wondering if there is life after such darkness. There is.
It may not be easy, but it’s here and it’s waiting for you. ❤️‍🩹
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#livedexperience #suicideprevention #mentalhealthadvocacy #peersupport #peerwork taken in Gold Coast, Queensland by @thepeerpathproject

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8 months ago

If there’s one thing you read today, sit with this 🫶🏼
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#peerwork #livedexperience #mentalhealth #peersupport by @thepeerpathproject

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8 months ago