MHR team member Yuliana Astorga-Licardie interviewed her classmates about their struggles with mental health, their views on the stigma around it, and what they want to see change. I took some quotes from their responses.
Zab
“I think everybody, whether they recognize it or not, struggles with some mental health issues. For me personally, I don’t think I’ve struggled necessarily, with something like clinical depression or something else like that.”
“Knowing more how to have these conversations . . . I don’t know whether it’s starting to have these conversations at a younger age, or working to introduce more training in health and wellness classes . . .”
“I come from a place of privilege . . . I haven’t really had to deal with those issues, so I still don’t know how to best support people. Because what can I say? How can I pretend to understand what somebody else is going through in one of those situations that I’ve never been in? . . . I want to help, but I don’t know how to. Whether it’s as seemingly simple as talking about feelings, most of what’s happened in my life is easy for me to talk about . . . I’m someone that likes to solve problems, and this is a problem that I don’t know how to start solving.”
Max
“I am diagnosed [with depression]. I’ve known maybe two years?”
“People don’t really like to talk about their mental health . . . I feel fortunate to be in a group of friends where we actually feel free to discuss that in between us, but I feel like in other groups it’s really difficult for people to express their feelings because they don’t feel like it’s a safe space to have that conversation.”
“I wish people were more accepting that a lot of people have mental health issues, and if people are just more accepting of that fact . . . we could have these conversations and people could learn more. It would be better if we all understood what each of these problems were.”
Rachel
“I’ve struggled with depression, anxiety, social anxiety, and panic disorder . . . I was diagnosed officially around October or September in eighth grade . . . Before, I was vaguely aware, but it never really kind of solidified in my head that there was something wrong until it was on paper.”
“In my family, because the idea normally, is like, ‘you have such a perfect and easy life, why would you be depressed or have mental health issues when you don’t have anything to be sad about?’”
“I want to be able to talk about it. I want to stop being embarrassed about it because it’s really easy to go online and talk about it, but it’s hard to be in a situation where [you talk about it in person] because there’s that stigma. And I want it to be something that’s more open, something that’s not--I don’t want to say shameful--something iffy to talk about. I want it to be something people can talk about freely.”
Anonymous
“I want people to at least know it’s a thing . . . I feel like people don’t think it exists, but it does.”
“I don’t know how to change the stigma. You can educate them, but I don’t know how to make them go to classes . . .”
Chris
“[I’ve struggled with] anxiety, as well as depression. I haven’t known for very long. I knew I had anxiety for some time, but depression I was never really sure on until I was at my annual physical and my doctor asked me some questions on my mental health . . . he told my mom I need to go see somebody because I have depression.”
“I think people only kind of scratch the surface of mental health. If you don’t really have a mental health problem, it’s hard to understand what it’s like . . . but don’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes because you can’t.”
“People should understand how serious of a problem it is . . . Bring more awareness to it, bring more groundbreaking change, a lot more studies into it.”
“Talking about it with my friends [makes me feel supported]. I guess being able to sit down and chill with them about it is so comforting and relaxing, having them tell me it’s okay, you’re not alone, you’re going to be fine. It overall really helps me get through it.”