Talking about our imperfections is easier said than done, but a new student group says mental health doesn’t have to be anyone’s dirty little secret. NU Active Minds (NUAM), a branch of the national mental health awareness organization Active Minds, launched in the winter as a forum for students to talk about mental health issues.
NUAM co-president Jinny Lee, who founded Northwestern’s chapter of the organization, says mental illness is tough to talk about – and not just at Northwestern, but also on college campuses across the country. She founded NUAM to help dispel the stigma surrounding mental disorders at Northwestern.
“People either don’t know much about mental disorders or [don’t know] how common they are around campus, and it’s a stigmatized topic that not many people are willing to talk about,” says the Communication senior.
The group held its first event, NU PostSecret, in the spring. Modeled after Frank Warren’s famous “PostSecret” project, more than 200 students wrote their “secrets” on postcards to be displayed at the Rock. In October, NUAM presented a panel called Stigma in which four undergrads spoke about their experiences with mental illness.
NUAM co-president Shaina Coogan says the events are a way to put faces to mental disorders that can otherwise be filed away in textbooks as vocabulary terms.
“Sometimes there’s this mentality of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ [as if] we’re normal and they’re the ones with the problem, when really people we see every day feel these things,” Coogan, a Weinberg junior, says. “We wanted people to know mental disorders are more common than they think and it’s really OK to talk about it, and absolutely OK to seek help for it.”
Throughout the year, NUAM will hold open meetings where all students are welcome to come talk about issues relating to mental health. They’ll also have resources available for students who need help.
“We’re trying to bring the community together,” Lee says. “[Students are] afraid to talk about their own problems and other people’s problems. We want to make it a friendlier community.”