Within Darkness

Within Darkness

Within Darkness are such haunting words.

Within Darkness

I begin writing this post while listening to Bill Oberst Jr‘s voice slowly and hauntingly say, ‘Within Darkness‘. 

Firstly, Within Darkness is a short film raising awareness about depression and mental health. It is one mans journey with depression with the important message to speak out and not remain ‘within darkness‘.

Within Darkness

Within Darkness is a poem written by Stephen Harper and his struggle with depression.  It is very moving and hard hitting, and comes from the creative mind of Stephen, a dark-folk underground artist. He specialises in creating otherworldly and surreal character illustrations, which are inspired by myths, movies, pop-culture, and horror. 

Managing Mental Health Conditions

As creative artists, we both realise important aspects of managing our conditions of which the first is, ‘being creative’. It is only when we are working creatively, that we begin finding inner peace. Additionally, it is almost as if we’re locked away from any interference from the outside world.

Firstly, if you begin looking up methods of managing stress, it recommends that you do something creative. When you are in the present moment using your senses, there is no worry.

Secondly, the aspect of managing your mental health is to talk about it and not to remain WITHIN DARKNESS.

It’s not easy to speak out for fear of being branded mental or weak. Sometimes, it is hard to speak out as you may fear a persons reaction or feel weak, embarrassed or hurt. 

Before I was diagnosed with anxiety, I knew that I wasn’t myself. I didn’t want to go out and mingle with people, and I felt like I couldn’t cope. Furthermore, I was avoiding anything that might cause me stress or grief.

I remember receiving text messages and wanting to avoid them. Following this, my feelings of anxiety were growing when looking at their name for fear of not answering them.

A letter would arrive and I’d feel my heart racing before I knew what it was about.

My place of work was so stressful that I constantly felt intense butterflies causing me to fold over.

The worst thing is, although I knew that I wasn’t myself, I remember fearing to speak out about it. I felt weak and stupid!

My resulting behaviour was beating myself up. I began hating myself and I started bottling everything up. Thankfully, I began seeking help, which meant that I began speaking out to avoid remaining in darkness!

Depression

1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health condition.

Tony Longworth

Within Darkness features not only myself and Stephen, both from the great spooky Liverpool. In addition, it features my good friend and talented composer, Tony Longworth. Tony Longworth has written two pieces of music especially for this project. You may recognise Tony’s name as we regularly collaborate on projects. More importantly, he is an award winning music composer.

Bill Oberst Jr, the voice of Within Darkness

Finally, we have the amazing and talented, award winning actor, Bill Oberst Jr.

His voice narrating Stephen’s poem adds intensity. He sounds absolutely amazing and brings our collaborative efforts together. Please check out Bill Oberst Jr amazing website to see how talented and creepy he is.