Photo taken by contributor Carrie Hilgert, a photographer and painter from Northeast Kansas who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After venturing into digital photography, she became interested in documenting her life with self portraits. This became particularly helpful when her life started to fall apart due to depression. All her other creative outlets left her, but she could always process her very dark feelings with self portraits. While she is doing much better now, she maintains compassion for those going through these hard things and hopes that her photography can give an honest insight into something that makes most people feel very isolated and alone.

About this photo: “Maybe everyone needs a hand to hold, even if it’s just your own. Maybe that’s the most important one.”

Find more from Carrie at her website.

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