Ending the Stigma

In my first slate post I talked about Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its causes, affects, and my experiences with it. I explained how it affects students with their education and day to day life. I did my best to explain why mental health is so important and its impacts. I also provided statistics about GAD and mental health in general. I tried to pick a topic that I knew I could relate to so I could understand it and its effects better.) I talked about Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its causes, affects, and my experiences with it. I explained how it affects students with their education and day to day life. I did my best to explain why mental health is so important and its impacts. I also provided statistics about GAD and mental health in general. I tried to pick a topic that I knew I could relate to so I could understand it and its effects better.

As I continue my research I find more and more hotlines and online resources for mental health that I didn’t even know existed. There are so many online screening websites for people to get diagnosed and seek treatment. There were even substance abuse treatment websites that found you help based on your zip code. I was surprised at how easily accessible they were as all it took was a quick google search to find them. Most of the hotlines and resources I found were located in philly too! It was encouraging to see all of these websites together as I felt like I was seeing real change. I think this change is so important because it’s a huge step in making mental health more accessible to everyone. I just wish more people were aware of these websites and resources and knew that there is help out there.

My GAD awareness Instagram Account

For my agent of change I made an instagram account (@gadawareness) and made my own infographics with my research from my annotated bibliography! I had my friends share and follow the account. I also made a link tree for my bio with mental health resources and hotlines that I found in my research. I decided to do this because I felt like most students my age had social media so the best way to connect with them was through an instagram account. My experience was great and I enjoyed making and designing my infographics. I liked being able to get creative and chose the color palette for my account. I think I was effective in at least providing some information to my followers which is a small step but in the right direction.

One of the posts I made for my account

My overall project was refreshing to work on, I felt like there was hope out there and that even my small steps toward change can help. It also felt overwhelming but seeing everyone else make their accounts and fundraisers and websites encouraged me. I learned the impact of hearing other peoples stories and seeing people get the help that they needed when I was researching. I felt very supported by my classmates who followed and liked my posts, it was a reminder that we are a community. If I could change anything I would have made my posts earlier or made more. While I like the way my account turned out I could have planned the timing out way better. I feel like all of my small steps matter but to achieve real change we need people to talk about mental health more and make it more common, maybe then we can finally erase the stigma.