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Minds for Change hosts speak out on mental health

By Hannah O’Grady ’17

Ten brave speakers stood before a large audience to share their personal stories about mental health issues. The event on Feb. 18, titled Speak Your Mind, was Hamilton’s first speak out about mental health. The speak out, which has been in development since November 2014, was hosted by Hamilton College’s Minds for Change, and spearheaded by co-president Meg Riley ’17. Minds for Change, formerly known as Active Minds, is a club that hosts weekly open and honest discussions regarding mental health. The club also works towards removing the stigma surrounding mental illnesses on Hamilton’s campus via conversations and projects, such as the Speak Out.

The speak out was hosted in the Events Barn, which was overflowing with such a large audience that people had to sit in the upper balcony.  In the days leading up to this event, members of Minds for Change ran a table outside of the Diner that provided students with postcards on which to write down their secrets. On the night of the speak out, these secrets were put on display outside of the venue. The point of these postcards was to encourage students to open up about what they have been internally struggling with, and to remove the stigma that surrounds discussing difficult issues, such as mental illness.

During the Speak Out, the ten speakers spoke about a variety of topics surrounding their history of dealing with mental illnesses.

Some students wrote pieces of poetry discussing depression and suicide. Another student created a combined piano and spoken word piece dealing with the issue of eating disorders. Other topics included the day in the life of someone with anxiety, the difference between sadness and depression, dealing with suicidal thoughts and dealing with a mother’s bipolar disorder. Audience members were not only presented with personal stories addressing mental illness, but were also presented with ideas and suggestions of how to help people struggling. Positive words of encouragement and optimism were also offered, such as Sophomore Alexa Merriam quote about struggling with eating disorders, “Look past your eating and exercise habits, your weight and your body shape and those things that you seem to have the power to change, and realize that you do not need to change them because trust me, someone in this world loves you.”

The crowd responded wonderfully to these speakers and their personal stories. As speakers left the stage, the audience erupted into loud applause, cheering for their friends and holding up signs with words of encouragement. Walking back to their seats, speakers were showered with words of awe and pride. Hayley Goodrich ’17, co-president of Minds for Change, stated that “There was so much love and support and trust around the stage that night; I don’t think we could have asked for anything better.”

The purpose of this event is to encourage the open discussion of mental illnesses, as well as to raise awareness of the prevalence of mental illness on Hamilton’s campus. There’s a powerful statistic that states one in four college students have a diagnosable mental illness. With this diagnosis, there undoubtedly comes a stigma, and Minds for Change aims to remove this stigma that many students on this campus face on a daily basis.

Talking about mental illness is often a taboo subject, and Minds for Change strives to make people realize that talking about this topic is not only okay, but also encouraged. Only when we begin openly talking about this topic can we begin to eliminate stigma and discrimination.

When asked about the goals of this event, Goodrich said, “We wanted to show the campus that mental health and the inevitable ups and downs that go along with it have to be shared, celebrated even, because once you silence that part of someone, you’re teaching them to be ashamed of that part of themselves..I don’t think knew, or anyone else really, realized how much this campus needed the Speak Out, how much we needed to illuminate some of these more taboo subjects.”

Hamilton College’s Minds for Change has several activities and projects, all geared towards erasing stigma and raising awareness, that will take place in the following months. In the upcoming weeks, the club will soon be collecting submissions for their second publication of Hidden, a magazine containing artwork, poetry, and short stories submitted by Hamilton students. All of these submissions address mental health and mental illness.

Minds for Change will also be hosting an event in the spring semester called Relaxation Celebration, which will consist of various activities geared towards eliminating anxiety and promoting mental health awareness.

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