Day Highlights Mental Health

Students rallied yesterday in front of the Science Center and participated in a group counseling session as part of the first annual Tell Your Story Day, a series of events sponsored by the Harvard College Mental Health Advocacy and Awareness Group (MHAAG) designed to raise mental health awareness on Harvard’s campus.

The day began with the rally, at which members of MHAAG held posters displaying stories submitted anonymously by Harvard students. The group also invited students to share their stories confidentially in its office above the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), and later held a “Dessert and Debriefing” event where students spoke openly about their own experiences and thoughts about the best ways to achieve mental health.

MHAAG co-chair Eunice Yang ’08 said that student reaction to the group’s events had been lukewarm, and that only a few non-members had come to the rally, counseling session, or the evening event.

Still, Yang said, the day’s goal had been reached.

“The most important thing about this day is that people know that we’re here to talk to,” she said.

Distributing pins that read, “You can tell me your story—I’m listening!”, MHAAG co-chair Susan I. Putnins ’08 said that peer-to-peer discussion is an important step toward mental health.

“It’s great that students have UHS and the BSC, but usually the first person you talk to when you have a problem is a friend,” she said. “Before we can change administrative, faculty, or tutors’ ideas about counseling, we need to figure out what we need as a student body.”

In an effort to reduce what MHAAG members called a “stigma” surrounding mental health issues, the group started a Web site—tellyourstory.wikispaces.com—last week that encourages students to anonymously submit stories, concerns, or thoughts about mental health.

Over thirty students had made submissions at the time of this printing, covering topics such as competition at Harvard, weight expectations, and anxiety attacks. One post reads simply, “I used to cut myself. I miss it.”

Putnins said that while an anonymous posting might not be as effective in dealing with a concern as talking to a friend, the Web site forum gave comfort to those struggling with mental health.

“The fact that these stories are public means that someone who reads this will be like, wow, there are twenty other people who feel the same way I do,” Putnins said.

A number of students at the evening meeting said that they had heard about the group through the web site.

Yang said that these online submissions bring the problem of mental illness to light in a culture that often ignores it.

“It shows how much work needs to be done on campus—everyone has these problems, but no one’s doing anything about it,” she said.