You can become a builder of our
Sweet, Sweet Home! 

Meet our participants and their stories

Mr Grzegorz


Another biography is about Mr. Grzegorz, who is a participant of one of the Community self-help centres in Łódź. His history shows the enormity of the possibilities of community support, but also the inevitable limitations of this form of help for people with mental health issues. Mr. Grzegorz was born in 1952.

Mr. and Mrs. Karolina & Tomek 

Before I was diagnosed with depression, I received help at the day ward in a hospital in Brzeg, where I participated in occupational and group therapy. Later I got individual and group therapy in a hospital in Komorów near Warsaw. At first, it was not easy for me to be away from home. I had to heal the disease by myself. Here I was diagnosed with ajustment disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder. After some time, when I was attending classes in college, my old symptoms returned. I was taken to the hospital again, this time in Tworki, where I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Slowly recovering from treatment, I returned home.

Mr. Zbigniew

Through hardships to the stars

My name is Zbigniew Kuliński. I should start the story of my life from the Juliusz Słowacki High School in Lodz. I am writing about it because it influenced my future fate. I've always been good at physics and maths and rarely got school grades lower than good or very good in these subjects. I was passionate about physics, as the basic science that describes the universe and its relationship to mathematics, that it is not a mess but some order.

Mrs Sławka


Sławka was born 49 years ago in Łódź. From the beginning her life was hard. Both of her parents were mentally ill, they had four children, with some of them they were longer, with other shorter. Her aunt was willing to take care of her, but mother didn’t want to give her child. Then Sławka was taken to a child care home without asking her mother for permission. Till the end of aunt’s life, she was supporting Sławka in any way she could. 

Mr. Mariusz


My name is Mariusz. I developed a mental illness over a dozen years ago. For the first time I was in a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital. I am diagnosed with a paranoid schizophrenia. Now I am in the best shape I have ever been since my diagnosis. Before the diagnosis when I was healthy, music was my biggest passion. I learned how to beatbox. It is about making different sounds through the mouth. What else can I say? When I came to Jedlicze I was in not very good mental condition, I went there immediately after hospitalization and learned what a stable is and what systematic and thorough work is. I was slowly introducing myself and volunteering.

Mrs. Marzena

My nameis Marzena and I am 47. All I have achieved in my life, was when I became mentaly ill. I try to explain my children, that mental illness is not a life sentence. You can live normal life with it. 

I have so many interests, such as history of art, drawing, painting or digital creative art. I love cycling and hiking. I constantly set new goals and challenge myself. Now I work towards reducing my weight. My only dream I have not fulfilledyet is gaining my driving license. For now I just want to live ordinary life, to make my dreams come true and my plans to be complete.

Mrs. Iwona

I grew up fast. 

My name is Iwona, I am 37 years old. I could be your colleague, neighbor, or friend. Probably you didn’t know, but I was diagnosed with a mental disorder when I was 22 years old. 
The truth is that I never had a peaceful childhood. Because of my family situation I had to take over the household duties and met the challenges of adult life.

Mr. Paweł

When I was a kid, my family was important to me. It was heaven on earth. Everybody strived to give me the peace that I now have within me, I find it very useful now. 

I set this goal in my life, I called it ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY. Whether I was abroad, where I lived for a few years and had hundreds of friends, or in Poland, I’ve tried and am still trying to achieve it. Since I got ill, schizophrenia prevents me from pursuing this goal as much as I’d like to. It’s much harder now, but I’m trying. Even when I was healthy I didn’t live a beautiful life every week, life is never perfect, we make mistakes, have our ups and downs.

Mr. Andrzej 

Depression from childhood

I was born in 1963. My problems with mental health have been with me since childhood. Already in preschool, I have been suffering from outbursts of anger and anxiety. Then I found out that these are the symptoms of the so-called childhood depression. Situation didn’t changed in primary school. It was probably then that my "more adult" problems began, although it was rather not very severe symptoms of depressions. Back then, I withdrew from living with my peers, and spent a lot of time alone. In the sixth class, I became interested in natural sciences, especially biology.

Mr. Andrzej

I fight every day!

The first time, I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital was in 2003. But, for first three years I did not accept the fact that Iwas mentaly ill. During my first hospitalization, after just three days, I ran away from hospital. Unfortunately, bipolar hit me hard. I would have maniac ups, which meant I felt overwhelming euphoria and excitment much more than usual. After up to four months, I was back in a mental hospital. At this stage I was still refusing to take medication after hospitalization, and I was often back at a psychiatric ward. Usually, I would spendup to 6-8 weeks in hospital. My last admition to psychiatric hospital was in 2009.

Mr. Marek

Support gives strength!

It started years ago and unfortunately I am still struggling with the disease. In March this year I will be 44 years old, and I was hospitalized in 1999. After graduating from high school, I went to study law in Warsaw. Unfortunately, in the first year, after the winter session, I developed serious mental health problems. To make matters worse, my father died in the summer semester. After that, I could not get up, I returned to Łódź and was taken to a psychiatric hospital. I spent almost five months there. I had time to think about everything, to try to return to normalcy and society after I left. I did not know then that it would take me many years ...