MTV will host the primary ever Psychological Well being Youth Motion Discussion board in coordination with the Biden-Harris administration Wednesday.
The purpose is to raise the voices of younger individuals – sharing their concepts to shatter the stigma surrounding psychological well being and give you options to assist those that are struggling.
“You by no means know what the opposite individual is feeling subsequent to you except in case you talk about it,” 18-year-old Kheira Bekkadja stated.
MTV is shining a highlight on psychological well being with assist from 30 younger individuals from throughout the nation.
There is not any disgrace in sharing about your struggles or in case you’re feeling anxious or drained or burdened, as a result of almost certainly, the individual sitting subsequent to you can be going via the identical factor.
Kheira Bekkadja, GMU freshman
“These 30 younger individuals are creators and activists,” stated Vaughn Bagley, director of social influence at MTV Leisure Group. “A few of them have based their very own nonprofits. They’re entrepreneurs who’ve based firms centered on psychological wellbeing.”
She says a whole lot utilized however solely a choose few have been chosen.
Amongst these collaborating in MTV’s Psychological Well being Motion Discussion board on the White Home is 21-year-old Cynthia Yue from George Washington College.
“Rising up, psychological well being was extremely stigmatized, and it was by no means an enormous precedence throughout the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) group,” she stated.
“There was all the time this stress from my household, which had risked every thing to deliver us to return to America and produce us the American dream,” she stated.
She stated she typically felt like the load of the world was on her shoulders however turned her personal nervousness into advocacy and now serves as a youth observer to the United Nations.
“I’ve met with and labored with younger people who find themselves in battle zones who’ve shared with me how these points have impacted their psychological well being,” she stated.
Bekkadja, a freshman at George Mason College who attended Edison Excessive College in Alexandria, is sharing her psychological well being journey.
“I am going to always remember this interplay with one among my academics,” she recalled. “She requested me for a nickname, as a result of my title was very laborious to pronounce for her, and it was the primary time somebody has ever questioned my id.”
Bekkadja says it took a while to really feel snug in her personal pores and skin as a Muslim American lady, and she or he credit the Our Minds Matter membership at her faculty with giving her the braveness to share her story. She hopes it evokes others to do the identical.
“There is not any disgrace in sharing about your struggles or in case you’re feeling anxious or drained or burdened, as a result of almost certainly, the individual sitting subsequent to you can be going via the identical factor,” she stated. “So simply creating that sense of group.”
These college students went via a six-week digital program, sharing their experiences and developing with psychological well being options. It culminates with a presentation on the White Home with politicians, tech firms and nonprofits that each one have the facility to assist deliver their concepts to life.
“We would like to have the ability to proceed to uplift their voices, as a result of they’re those that actually deeply perceive the challenges and the boundaries that they and their friends have confronted when attempting to take psychological well being actions,” Bagley stated.
The concepts they’ll current at Wednesday’s discussion board embrace advocating for a change in U.S. labor legal guidelines by creating psychological well being days similar to sick days.
In the event you or somebody you already know is struggling, there are plenty of resources online.
