We Challenged People to Write Honest Captions for Their Facebook Photos

Our social media identity is a carefully curated version of ourselves — and unlike real problems, an unwelcomed Facebook photo can be rid off with a single click.

While a picture is worth a thousand words, how often do we use photos on social media to tell the whole story? Those who live with mental illnesses or other conditions are familiar with the concept: There’s the you shown to the world, and there’s the “real” you, the messy you, who often doesn’t get as much airtime online.

To get some transparency on the web, we teamed up with PostSecret and Active Minds to collect Facebook photos with truly honest captions.

You’ll find these pictures are worth so much more:

A girl in a bus. Text reads: I look happy in this picture, but it takes everything I have every single day not to kill myself because being alive hurts so, so much.

A man looking down at a gun in the dark. Text reads: "I still don't know why I chose to live that night. I still don't know if I'm going to keep choosing it, and I reenacted this photo to show it."

Red-headed model. "In this photo I may look very confident and self-assured, but behind the facade is this immense fear that because of my thyroid scar I cannot pursue modeling and performing as I will not be wanted. I'm trying to soak in every moment now and hope that there is a future for my passions. I was also managing my anxiety with the stranger who was my photographer."