Active Minds

Chloe Damukaitis from Active Minds at Collin County Community College says:

"Mental health is something I became very familiar with at a young age; my own mom has been affected by numerous symptoms all due to a brain tumor that took control over her left frontal lobe. Having a grapefruit-sized portion of her left frontal lobe removed took a toll on my mom as it would on anyone, but no one seemed willing to talk about the things that started to happen as a repercussion of the surgery.

I started to realize that once someone started having “mental issues”, people would tend to run away and walk out. People don’t know how to handle or react to others with mental health issues, which confuses me because anyone with an ailment such as heart disease or diabetes is allowed to be open and talk about it – yet someone clinically depressed or schizophrenic has to stay in the shadows. It is precisely the people who are depressed or dealing with any other mental health- related conflict who really need to talk; they are the ones who need attention and understanding.

As a kid, I thought that people lacked understanding due to a lack of maturity, but as I got older people’s understanding didn’t seem to change. Mental health seemed to be the one thing people just didn’t talk about; it seemed to be the unaddressed issue. Regardless of how many high school or college teens lost their fight with depression, the issue never seemed to be properly approached.

My freshman year at Collin County Community College, I enrolled in the general psychology program and had a great professor who told us about a student organization she was the advisor for called Active Minds. I joined and ended up becoming president. The whole idea of Active Minds excited me because I had finally found a place where it was okay to talk about what no one else would; I had found a place where depression was understood and people were willing to stand up and say something.

I am proud to say that within a school year, our vice president and I, along with the help of our advisors, got our chapter up and noticed. From planning panel discussions to general meetings with guest speakers, we started to build up a pretty strong-minded organization. We participated in National Stress Øut Day along with various other activities and got out and spoke up.

Feedback from our fellow students seemed to be pretty positive, as it turned out that a lot of people had been waiting for this topic to stop being whispered about. Mental health affects everyone and until everyone can understand it and be comfortable with it, Active Minds is going to be there to help those who are unheard and bring forth this serious issue."