Hannah's Blog: Live Purposefully

"What do you have to be depressed about?" "You'll be fine, just take a deep breath." "You'll get over it. Things get better." "You're saying and doing that for attention." "This is a phase." "You'll grow out of it." Do these phrases sound familiar? To someone who lives with a mental disorder, those statements are said all too often. Because it's only recently that our culture has come to accept the presence of mental illness and what that truly means for individuals, there's still so much toxic stigma, harmful stereotypes, and dismissal centered especially around youth who think they may be or truly are living with mental illness. Teenagers already receive a lot of bad rap. They're stigmatized as moody, irresponsible, hormonal, rebellious-and in a lot of ways, they are. However, 1 in 5 teens are diagnosed a mental disorder, and many more live with the disorders unrecognized because the people cl

"That's very good-I love the humor," the writing instructor exclaimed as she leaned forward from her perch on an extra table. The student she was addressing looks pleased and sets down their paper, visibly encouraged by the comment and eagerly listening to the constructive criticism and praise that follows. Although time in the classroom can be restricted, their instructor urges her students to visit her in her office or email her to talk about their written works in further depth. Karelia Stetz-Waters, the English Department chair for the last five years and a writing instructor for the last 10, as well as an accomplished author, is well known around campus to be a kind and effective presence to the students. "What I like about working here...probably how all the faculty has the students' best interests at heart. We may not always agree on what that is," she said with a quick laugh, "But we all want to see them succeed and do what we can to help wi