Advocacy & Awareness
How to Be an Ally During Pride Month
It’s Pride Month, which for some means celebrating with rainbow cakes and free-flying flags, but for others means facing new versions of daily fears. For people still on their “coming out journey,” being told to wear your colors as brightly as possible can feel like asking a peacock to spread its feathers in a cramped…
Graduating into a New Reality Thanks to a 6-3 Opinion
Today, I turned a short tassel on my head from left to right and found myself with tears in my eyes. Walking across a nearly empty stage, filled more by COVID fears than celebration, I graduated into a different world. Yesterday, I would’ve entered a professional world where my sexuality could be marked as a…
Supporting Black Men’s Mental Health
This June, in honor of Men’s Mental Health Month, we recognize the importance of Black men’s mental health. That’s because Black Americans are half as likely as their White counterparts to receive the treatment that they need for mental health disorders, as systemic barriers to access and cultural stigma lock them out of the resources…
Young Adults Speaking Out About Mental Health Through COVID-19
This past weekend a panel of four young adults convened to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health and what they are hearing among their peers. Organized by We Rise, a Los Angeles-based mental health advocacy organization, this event was intended to elevate the voices and perspectives of young adults as…
Teletherapy During Stay-at-Home Orders
As many students leave their residential campuses and the world hunkers down into shelter-in-place “normality,” industries scramble to quickly transition to remote methods. This includes traditionally in-person therapy, and — many of us have questions! Where do you find a private space to have your online therapy session when you’re in close quarters with family…
Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2020: What You Can Do
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and while many students across the country are away from campus due to COVID-19, there are still many ways to take action and show support for survivors in your communities during this time. This is especially important amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, as many survivors may have had to return…
Taking Your Mental Health Advocacy Online
With most of Active Minds’ 16,000 student leaders prepared to or already transitioned to online learning, it’s more important than ever to continue our mental health advocacy efforts and support our now-remote campus communities during this time. Below are tips from Active Minds to keep your efforts moving, informed in part by our exclusively online…
You Will
If thoughts come with wings and enter our minds from outside ourselves, conceived and born in a great nameless abyss that holds everything possible, good and bad, within it, that is how and from where my first thought of suicide, at age thirteen, came to me. It wasn’t the result of an equation I’d set…
What to Look For in a Mental Health Professional
A long struggle with an eating disorder and psychosis has given me a lot of experience with different kinds of mental health professionals. It took me 15 years to find a therapist that worked for me; it’s important to never give up trying to find the right one. Based on my experience, health care professionals…
Sexual Assault Awareness Month: How to Be There
According to RAINN, an American experiences sexual assault every 92 seconds. One of six women and 1 in 33 males have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their life. More specifically, younger people are at higher risk of sexual violence. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and nationwide, colleges are educating…
Active Minds is the nation's premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for students.