I am raising awareness for mental health and stigma for 3 months now. Night shifts with writing and organizing next to my “real” job. 3 months with over 40 blog posts and almost 300k views. Many wonderful new friends and people all over the world.
I educate and learn at the same time. Depression. Suicide. Miscarriage. Religion. Racism. Grief. Chronic Illness. Gender equality. And so much more.
Before I started doing this I did not know how many people at my university are affected. That so many have to take medication and struggle every single day. I wished I could go back in time and start this earlier.
I have never been diagnosed with a mental illness myself. However, I spent many hours talking to psychologists and psychiatrists during these “family sessions”. I was questioned and checked, and had to answer all these questions about my mom. At first that was really strange, but then I just went along with it. Like going to the dentist or so.
This became normal for me. And I just hope it would be normal for more people to talk about this.
However, talking alone is not enough and mental health support has to be implemented university wide to help students and employees. I know that this will not happen overnight. At least I want to say “I am doing what I can and I am not giving up. I want to help and I want to see change”.
-by Anna Schueth
