{"id":53882,"date":"2020-02-27T13:45:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=53882"},"modified":"2020-02-27T13:45:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:45:22","slug":"fhsu-student-raising-awareness-about-breaking-down-mental-illness-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=53882","title":{"rendered":"FHSU student raising awareness about breaking down mental illness stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien
<\/strong> University Relations and Marketing
<\/em> Demetrius Chance knows that a huge step in facing and dealing with depression and mental illness is to talk to someone about what\u2019s bothering you. He also knows that is much tougher than it sounds.

The 29-year-old Chance survived childhood abuse, bouts with depression, alcoholism, four suicide attempts and a psychotic breakdown. He doesn\u2019t mind talking about his life \u2013 mainly because of the word that now describes him: survivor.

\u201cMental illness can be a common language if we talk about it,\u201d Chance said. \u201cI have to be able to talk about everything with my life because it helps. I\u2019m an open book.\u201d

Chance is now a happily married college student, majoring in sociology at Fort Hays State University, and a father of five. And he wants to raise awareness about mental illness by squelching the stigmas and stereotypes associated with the disease.

He wants people to know that it\u2019s acceptable to reach out for help to talk about what they\u2019re going through.

\u201cIt\u2019s OK for you not to be OK some days,\u201d he said, \u201cbut then you have to decide what you are going to do about it,\u201d such as seeking professional help instead of turning to alcohol or drugs.

Chance organized a group of FHSU faculty for a panel discussion as part of a project through the National Alliance on Mental Illness on Campus. His name for the project \u2013 \u201cCan You See Me?\u201d \u2013 was personal.

\u201cWhen I was dealing with my trauma and battles with mental illness, I wondered if people were depicting who I was because of my illness,\u201d he said. \u201cWere they seeing me as a person or seeing me for my scars?\u201d

The seven panel members, all from different ethnic groups \u2013 including natives of Taiwan, Uganda, Brazil and India \u2013 answered pre-written questions while addressing a packed house in the Memorial Union\u2019s Black and Gold Room Tuesday.

The panel discussion followed a moving video with the project title, featuring three students who spoke out about how speaking out ultimately led to a happier life.

One of those students was Chance, who talked about some of the issues he faced while growing up as an adopted child in North Carolina, with his biological father living nearby under the identity of his alcoholic uncle. That led to a troubled young adulthood before he finally sought professional counseling.

Tuesday\u2019s presentation originated from an idea of Ken Windholz, an instructor in FHSU\u2019s Department of Psychology and the advisor for NAMI. Windholz, a licensed clinical psychotherapist for 45 years, has been trying to use NAMI as a vehicle for raising awareness for mental illness for several years.

Chance moved to Hays in 2018 with his wife, Nuchelle \u2013 an instructor in the Psychology Department \u2013 and their family. A year later, he enrolled at FHSU, joined NAMI and jumped at the opportunity to tell his story.

\u201cMy whole life goal now is to help others,\u201d Chance said. \u201cI\u2019m a voice, and that\u2019s the platform I\u2019m trying to build, to encourage others to tell their stories.\u201d

After about nine months of planning and organizing the event, Chance saw his dream become reality. He was deliberate about his panelist choices.

\u201cI wanted to get a diverse perspective of how different ethnic groups deal with psychological trauma,\u201d Chance said.

As a whole, the panelists agreed that everyone deals with psychological pain no matter what their race or nationality.

Windholz and Chance were encouraged by the turnout, and Chance hopes to keep moving forward, maybe land some public speaking opportunities and continue to address breaking down the barriers about mental illness.

\u201cI want to build a platform for the community,\u201d Chance said. \u201cLet\u2019s bring up topics that people don\u2019t feel comfortable talking about \u00ad\u2013 but should \u2013 and build on it.\u201d \u00a0

FHSU offers a variety of support for students, from the Kelly Center (the university\u2019s counseling center) to the Office of the President.

Fort Hays State Vice-President for Student Affairs Joey Linn read a note from President Tisa Mason, who was unable to attend. It talked about a recent summit on campus, titled \u201cHope in the Heartland,\u201d that involved mental health professionals and legislators.

The gathering, she wrote, raised public awareness about mental health, substance use, and stress in farming and agriculture. A large part of the focus was on de-stigmatizing mental health.
Mason stressed that there is hope around continuing dialogue on that issue.

She applauded the audience for coming together to address the stigma of mental health disorders in various cultures and populations.

\u201cYour participation in this dialogue,\u201d she said, \u201cmay be the spark that lights the shadows and brings mental health and healing to those in our community who need it most.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien University Relations and Marketing Demetrius Chance knows that a huge step in facing and dealing with depression and mental illness is to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53883,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions\/53883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}