In April this year, photographer Emily Robinson started a storytelling project to honour her mother Cindy, who has been suffering from schizophrenia since her early 20s.
Emily, who runs a Facebook page and blog by the name "You are in this world", writes, "I love her. I want to show the world how beautiful she is. I want to make sure all her suffering has not been for nothing. I’m hoping that by sharing, I can make some small difference so that my mom’s life goes on the record as being important. Because it is. She is. We all are."
The project was Emily's way of giving a voice to her mother, of telling her she is important, and also starting a platform where she could openly speak about mental illness.
"We don’t talk about [mental illness]. That’s the point of putting this out there. I need people to see mental illness from a place of love," she told UpWorthy.
She updates her page with photographs and powerful videos along with posts documenting the struggles they go through.
And the struggles are not just limited to the person with the disorder but also affects their caregivers.
In one of her blog posts, Emily writes, "It can be difficult to speak about the burden of caring for a person with mental illness. We love them too much to complain very often in public. We know the stigma they carry in addition to their illness is already terrible enough. As a result, the weight of caring for them can often become very isolating.
We need to help the helpers. They are on the front lines. They are often the only lifeline to a person who is falling away."