About The Author

Inspiration and Background

I have experienced mental illness. My friends have mental health issues. My classmates struggle with mental disorders. Even my professors deal with mental health-related problems. I became aware of such a silent epidemic at the end of my sophomore year, but it was not always like that. I lived two years believing that mental illness was a part of the college lifestyle, and it turned me into a calloused bystander. This passive mentality escalated into ignorance, and I believed that mental illness was just a state of mind that would eventually pass. I attributed anxiety to nervousness. I considered bipolar disorder as mood swings. I considered depression as sadness. I aligned eating disorders with new diets. While those around me struggled with an undisclosed illness, I looked the other way. 

Mental illness has been considered taboo until recent years, and new institutional efforts have encouraged mental health to be a comfortable talking point. I believe this is why those close to me started talking about their struggles. I initially refused to believe the stories, but they would always perst in defending themselves. Through the accumulating personal anecdotes and life traumas, their reality soon became apparent. For those moments, I did not know what to say except for, "you should go see a counselor." Despite my minimal efforts in helping my closest friends through their mental health disorders, the extent of mental illness did not stop there.

Another one of my friends told me about his struggles with anxiety due to a deep-rooted lack of confidence within himself. Years of bullying and self-deprecation caused him to affirm his low self esteem. I did not know how to handle his anxiety, so I said my go-to response, "you should go see a counselor." Over the course of a few months, I had uttered that phrase to my best friends, coworkers, and even my family. Who this counselor was, I did not know. What this counselor would do, I had no idea. How I could help them, I was lost.

This practicum is a collaboration with students, administrators, professors, counselors, and other faculty and Mines aimed to address this problem. Through hearing the stories of those who have suffered, one could hope that we can better the lives of those afflicted.

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