By Allen Irwin. Mental health was never once a topic in my household and when it reeled its ugly head, a purple elephant showed up to the party that was somehow invisible. Crazy to look back and try to wrap my head around the fact that any of this could ever be ignored. Yet, this has been the very same story being told all around the world. Why would anyone want to talk about something that can’t be seen. I found myself sitting in a jail cell detoxing from Oxycontin and wondering where it had all gone wrong. And this was how I disguised my mental health by digging myself a hole that I nearly couldn’t climb out of.

By Judy Gross. The outdoors were my sanctuary – a place I could be alone and explore. I also grew up thinking the outdoors were a women’s sanctuary, that men didn’t go out in nature – I told this to someone recently (a man) and was laughed at – what little does he know – if you look at recent statistics, there are more women than men in many outdoor activities.

By Betsy Kane. In college, I found myself seeking out local trails to find peace and solitude away from campus. Hiking became an escape from reality in my mid-twenties, when I was facing divorce at a young age. When I was almost 30, a car slammed into mine on my way home from work one day, and I ended up needing spinal surgery. During that time of physical weakness, I decided that I should go for a hike on the Appalachian Trail. My mom angrily reacted to this decision by telling me to stick a note in my pocket saying where to send my dead body.