There’s something I would like to tell people,

that there really is hope.

I have a lot to offer.

People only see the pathology behind it.

It really prevents them from seeing the whole person and everything they can contribute.

A lot of people are going through the same thing and together we can help each other.

Hello, my name is Maxime, I’m 24 years old, and I live in Belgium.

Around twelve or thirteen years old, that’s when the first symptoms really appeared.

I'm Martijn, I’m 52 years old.

I live here in Utrecht.

My story with mental health care started when I was a student in Wageningen.

After struggling for several years, I became confused and was eventually hospitalised.

Hi, I'm Antonella Bugeja.

I'm a 23 year old medical student and artist.

My first experiences with anxiety started when I was around 13 years of age,

and at that young age and being alone, I had no idea what was happening to me.

You can really see the stigma.

When you’re young, people party, but I didn’t fit into that way of having fun at all.

It caused a lot of problems because I definitely couldn’t manage to fit in.

You lose relationships, you lose your studies, you lose perspective, you lose hope, and you lose your health.

You lose meaning; you lose almost everything.

And in place you have a rough existence.

I think there are a lot of different aspects in which mental health is stigmatised

It's sad to see, even when it comes to therapy,

that it's seen as only for people who are crazy

because it really hinders people who might need it

to go and try to get help through therapy.

I work in collaboration with the Service for youth rights,

and our goal is actually to go into schools and do prevention work.

We tell ourselves that if we’ve reached one person, our job is successful.

Then I happened to come across a role model,

Wilma Boevink, who said: “I’ve been where you are now, and I want to talk to you about it.”

That’s actually what later became my job.

I felt really alone when I was going through a lot of the things I went through.

I want to help others feel less alone,

and now I can happily say that I can connect and collaborate

with different artists and activists to work on the things I'm passionate about.

For a long time, I thought that many doors were closed to me.

I can tell you that sometimes more doors can open than you might think.

So I would invite you to find the door and open it for yourself.