Month: February 2018

The one article I read from psychology today was about mental health and the stigma around it. The article first defines and also divides it into two parts “What is mental health stigma?: Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given. In contrast, perceived stigma or self-stigma is the internalizing by the mental health sufferer of their perceptions of discrimination, and perceived stigma can significantly affect feelings of shame and lead to poorer treatment outcomes” besides these helpful definitions the article goes on to discuss what the common stigmatizing attitude are in society. Essentially the whole article discusses the different aspects of stigma and since our approach is about helping get rid of the stigma surrounding mental health on campus and in the community this is a great article we can use to help explain why is important to eliminate this and just overall be educated on the topic

STATE of Mind

In our deliberation, we will be discussing how to improve mental health and mental wellness in general on campus. We will be looking at three approaches to help the alleviate the main problems that we feel face the university and the surrounding area with regards to this issue.

Approach 1: We are going to focus on CAPS. We want to specifically focus on how to fix the problem of advertising CAPS to students, making it more accessible and then also making it more efficient for students. We have multiple ways in which we want to do this one way we were thinking is to advertise it more to students, and then to help make it more efficient and we feel that by helping improve CAPS it will, in turn, help the surrounding community as well.

Approach 2: We are going to focus on how to prevent the stigma associated with mental health and then also how to create an accepting environment at the university and in the surrounding community. Some ways we want to do this is through education because that is where all this starts, so we were thinking of having speakers come who have been affected by mental health coming to talk to the university as well as the community would be good. Also along with this want to have a storytelling for people to speak about their experience with mental health. We also want to spread awareness so some things other universities have done is to visualize the impact mental health has on students and they have done this in public places to show the scope and number of people that are affected by it so that people will understand and see that this is a large issue. We feel that through education and awareness we can help get rid of the stigma that is surrounded by mental health and also create an accepting environment.

Approach 3: We want to emphasize the general education of mental health at the university. In order to do this, our main idea is to have a class on mental health that students take to that they are then educated on it. Another way we want to promote and have the general education is through having clubs and organizations that also focus on mental health.

My role is I am one of the people responsible for moderating, introducing, and closing the discussion on approach two.

Currently, I am working on research for approach two as well how we want to present this information and what we actually hope to discuss. Right now we are just in the beginning stages of working through this approach and I am really just focusing on becoming an expert on it.

“Wait your best friend lives where?”

“She lives in Ireland!”

“Wait then how are you guys best friends?”

This is something I hear all the time when people ask me about who my best friend is. They really don’t get it they seem to think that just because we don’t live next to each other and see each other everyday that means we can’t be best friends. Now I might have a lot of really good friends but my very best friend in the whole world is Rosie and yeah she really does live in Ireland, and yeah despite literally having an ocean between us we are still best friends. Whenever I have this conversation about who my best friend is with people I’m reminded of the day Rosie told me she was moving. Rosie and I were playing in the woods behind her house, climbing our favorite tree, daring each other to go higher and higher. When we finally decide we’d climbed high enough Rosie turns to me and says “I’m moving to Canada but it’s only for a year” I look at her blankly trying to process, after a long pause I say “But a year, that’s like forever what am I going to do without you?” She just smiles at me and says “Don’t worry we’ll write to each other all the time, and I’ll be back before you know it.” That conversation is something I will never forget because the feeling I had, the thought of not having her by my side was daunting I wondered how’d we make it. Little did we know that this was just the beginning. That summer when Rosie was staying with me for a couple weeks she told me even more heartbreaking news she wasn’t coming back to Connecticut. She was moving to Ireland for 3 years. I remember thinking how are we supposed to be a whole ocean apart when it was hard enough just being 9 hours apart? But I still had hope because she said three years and then she’d be back. I could handle three years. But three years turned into forever, Rosie never moved back to the U.S. She’s is still over in Europe and I’m still here in the U.S. We see each other every summer and it’s always a different adventure. Sometimes it’s here in the States other times it’s over in Europe but it honestly doesn’t matter where we are because wherever it is I’m always just happy to have my best friend by my side even if it’s only for a week or two. Sometimes it’s really hard to not have my best friend by my side and I miss her like crazy all the time, and I wonder why do we do this? But the thing is everytime I see her I’m reminded why we’re best friends. We’re best friends because despite all the distance and time spent apart we always just pick up where we left off like we never spent any time apart because she’s my person and I’m hers. Friendship is about the memories you’ve made and the ones you want to make in the future, it’s about wanting that person in your life no matter what. It’s the person who will support you even through all your bad decisions, and your good decisions it’s the person you’ll call to bail you out of jail if you ever need it, it’s the person who will stick by you through anything, it’s the person who knows everything about you it’s the person who will be your maid of honor, it’s the person you’ll name your kid after and for me that’s Rosie. She’s my person. So this I believe, friendship can’t be broken because of distance because friendship is much more powerful than that. I believe in the power of friendship to last a lifetime.