Breaking the Stigma
Location
SU 214
Department
Art
Abstract
It should be recognized that brain health is just as important as physical health. Everyone knows somebody who struggles with their mental health. If everybody knows a person who struggles with mental health, shouldn’t there not be a stigma? There’s a stigma on mental health that is labeled a silent killer. A silent killer because this stigma is meant to silence the mental health conversation. In some cases, people grow up or are around these environments that won’t let you speak about their own mental health. Imagine what that means for the person who is now silenced from expressing and sharing their experience with their mental health struggle. When researching what this stigma can do to a person’s wellbeing, I’ve found that people who struggle with their mental health tend to keep quiet and continue to suffer in silence believing that what they are feeling means nothing. They continue to live their lives struggling and dealing with their health in silene until it catches up to them. Most people who aren’t medically diagnosed, continue going untreated. This could potentially mean death for some people. Every single person deserves to be heard and talked to about their mental health. A conversation could save a life. Regarding the project, I’ll be designing a blogging website that will be a safe platform for women to be able to make connections with other women and hold conversations about their mental health. The purpose of this blogging website called, GRLFRND, is for women to blog about their experience, share advice, and provide links to anything that they use, seen, or heard that has made their mental health better. In hopes that other women get inspired, feel more hopeful and heard. It is important to recognize everybody’s mental health but for the purpose of this project I believe that starting with women can make all the difference. I hope to even start a men’s blogging website as well one day. To help fund these websites yearly I will also be including merchandise such as clothes, stickers and cards advertising the blogging website. We can break the stigma; it just starts with us and a conversation.
Faculty Sponsor
Lauren Meranda, Northeastern Illinois University
Breaking the Stigma
SU 214
It should be recognized that brain health is just as important as physical health. Everyone knows somebody who struggles with their mental health. If everybody knows a person who struggles with mental health, shouldn’t there not be a stigma? There’s a stigma on mental health that is labeled a silent killer. A silent killer because this stigma is meant to silence the mental health conversation. In some cases, people grow up or are around these environments that won’t let you speak about their own mental health. Imagine what that means for the person who is now silenced from expressing and sharing their experience with their mental health struggle. When researching what this stigma can do to a person’s wellbeing, I’ve found that people who struggle with their mental health tend to keep quiet and continue to suffer in silence believing that what they are feeling means nothing. They continue to live their lives struggling and dealing with their health in silene until it catches up to them. Most people who aren’t medically diagnosed, continue going untreated. This could potentially mean death for some people. Every single person deserves to be heard and talked to about their mental health. A conversation could save a life. Regarding the project, I’ll be designing a blogging website that will be a safe platform for women to be able to make connections with other women and hold conversations about their mental health. The purpose of this blogging website called, GRLFRND, is for women to blog about their experience, share advice, and provide links to anything that they use, seen, or heard that has made their mental health better. In hopes that other women get inspired, feel more hopeful and heard. It is important to recognize everybody’s mental health but for the purpose of this project I believe that starting with women can make all the difference. I hope to even start a men’s blogging website as well one day. To help fund these websites yearly I will also be including merchandise such as clothes, stickers and cards advertising the blogging website. We can break the stigma; it just starts with us and a conversation.