The posts are part of an online mental health awareness campaign launched last month by the Harvard Foundation, Harvard College Women’s Center, and the Office of BGLTQ Student Life. The anonymous Tumblr, called Mental Health Matters, allows students to share their experience with mental illness and recommends on-campus resources and events.
The blog is just one of several initiatives this semester aimed at spurring discussion on mental health. In November, SMHL hosted a panel in which four Harvard undergraduates—none of whom were interviewed for this series—told the stories of their suicide attempts. The month before, the spoken word group Speak Out Loud invited students to share their experience with mental illness through spoken word, interpretive dance, and candid conversations. Emotions ran high as students reflected on every kind of loss—from that of a friend to suicide to that of a daughter’s relationships with her father after coming out as a lesbian.
Mackenzie felt the open mic night was one of the most important mental health events of the year. “These are the conversations that haven’t happened on campus,” she says.
WISDOM FROM SURVIVORS
Alexa feels strongly that such conversations are the only way to reduce the stigma of mental illness at Harvard.
“Most of us will be suffering with this to some degree,” she says. “The biggest danger is not talking about it. For those who are sufferers, it is isolating. For those who might be sufferers, it limits information, and it’s isolating. And for people who are unaffected, it maintains a mystique that is not healthy.”
She encourages sufferers to do the most difficult, and crucial, thing—say something.
“There are people available for us,” she says. “It’s so important to find someone trusting. People are not out there to sabotage you. People are there to be helpful.”
Mackenzie too emphasizes the importance of not going it alone. “If you reach out to people, they will understand. They may not understand completely, but they will be sympathetic,” she says.
Looking back at her suicide attempts, Christine recognizes that her story—now one of recovery—could have turned out differently. Today there are still days she takes hours to pray through her despair, but with a mind free from suicidal thoughts, she celebrates her progress toward mental health.
“I would encourage people to embrace the reality of universal brokenness,” she says. “Embrace the reality that no one is perfect. It is easy to get tripped up at Harvard because it appears that everyone else is perfect. Remember that everyone falls short of perfection.”
—Mercer R. Cook, Rebecca D. Robbins, and Hana N. Rouse contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Quinn D. Hatoff can be reached at quinnhatoff@college.harvard.edu.