“I wear my white AWARE necklace because I am passionate about changing how we talk about and respond to mental and emotional distress. If someone says they have a physical injury, we do our best to help them heal as quickly as possible but if someone tells us they are in emotional or mental pain we back off because we are not taught how to deal with it, it scares people. We are taught to hide it, not to feel it. Through my struggles with mental health I became so afraid and ashamed of my own mind that I hid myself and lied about who I was and how I was. I looked like I was doing OK, but I was slowly killing my self. I want it to be the new ‘normal’ to talking about being addicted, having an eating disorder or owning your self harm scars, to tell people you have trauma, that you feel anxious or depressed. I want it to be ‘normal’ to know how to adapt around mental health issues the same way we would if a part of our physical body was broken or breaking. We need to teach each other how to handle our minds and how to love ourselves inclusively. Check out @the.mind.gym for more like this. We’d love to have you as part of the community.” @the.mind.gym