Health ministry publishes mental health memoir collection for Mental Health Day

South Korea's health ministry said Wednesday that its National Center for Mental Health has published a collection of first-person mental health memoirs to mark Mental Health Day, gathering 20 award-winning entries from the center's 2024 and 2026 essay contests into a single volume.

The book, titled "Facing the Mind," is meant to widen understanding of mental illness by letting people who have experienced it, and their families, tell their own stories. Its chapters follow that experience from the first signs of trouble through treatment and the return to ordinary life, weaving in information patients and relatives need along the way.

The opening chapter carries the contest winners' accounts, including people living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and gambling addiction, and describes how they have rebuilt routines at home and in their communities. A second chapter addresses the moment a problem first appears, covering how to recognize changes in symptoms, how to prepare for a first appointment and what drug treatment involves, as well as how families should respond when a relative refuses care or enters a crisis.

A third chapter deals with life after treatment begins, from returning to school or work and repairing relationships to preventing relapse and handling emergencies. It also introduces peer support and self-help groups and sets out mental health information by stage of life. The final chapter explains the roles of mental health institutions and how to use them, listing the names and main phone numbers of mental health welfare centers across the country.

"When you first face mental health difficulties, it can be hard to know where to start," said Nam Yun-young, director of the National Center for Mental Health. "I hope this book passes on comfort and courage through stories of recovery and becomes a guide to finding the treatment and help you need."

The collection is available in the mental health services archive on the center's website, ncmh.go.kr, and as an e-book through major online retailers including Kyobo Book Centre, YES24 and Aladin. Printed copies are being distributed to mental health organizations and selected public libraries.