Tuesday night, NC State’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness hosted “You Are Not Alone,” an event whose purpose was to debunk myths of mental health. The Order of Omega, an honor society for Fraternity and Sorority Life members, co-sponsored the event, alongside Mary Chamblee, a mental health ambassador and senior studying communication.

Chamblee says this year’s event covered a wide range of topics, including the stigma around mental health and the variation of mental health in individuals. It was opened with a keynote by Eui Kyung Kim, an assistant professor of psychology, who spoke about risk factors for mental health and protective factors.

This keynote was followed by a panel of four students, one professor and one counselor who gave input on a variety of issues regarding mental health. It ended with discussions in breakout groups, in which participants had the opportunity to share personal experiences along with what they learned at the event, with the goal of “personalizing and humanizing” their experience.

For Chamblee, one of the motivators for organizing the event is her personal connection to matters of mental health, including a personal struggle with depression and anxiety along with the loss of a friend to suicide. After her personal struggles with mental illness, she realized the importance of destigmatizing the topic.

“When something you deal with every day is silenced by society, that has an impact,” Chamblee said. “Obviously I can’t change the world in one day … but I think starting at home, on campus, was a good way to start the conversation about mental health.”

By virtue of this personal connection with mental health, the topic has become a passion for Chamblee, and she says it is something she believes is not discussed enough.

“There’s a stigma around it,” Chamblee said. “It requires self-awareness and vulnerability, two indicators of someone’s personal strength, but often perceived societally as weakness.”

Chamblee believes one of the major problems with societal views of mental health is the current framing that is used to think about emotions and vulnerability. According to Chamblee, these things are often seen as “weak.”

“I think there are a lot of factors that lend to this perception, but I think we need to flip the narrative,” Chamblee said. “Being empathetic and self-aware requires vulnerability, and that is strength.”