Welcome from the VP
by Brooklynn Smith
I decided to join the Dakota Initiative because I have a passion for mental health advocacy. While not the only experience that has driven me to mental health advocacy, my relationship with my mental health has given me first-hand experience of how desperately our community needs mental health awareness. I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder as a kid, and before I left high school, I had been diagnosed with another form of anxiety, called Panic Disorder. Since there’s such a stigma around mental illness, accessing appropriate care and treatment was incredibly hard, and for most of my life, I was ashamed of my mental health and blamed myself for my anxiety. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with ADHD at 21 that I realized how profoundly impacted I had been by the prevailing social norms associated with mental health, illness, and well-being.
Instead of getting proper support, accommodations, and community as a neurodivergent child, I–and so many other neurodivergent people–were left to deal with our mental health in shame, silence, and suffering. The stigma of mental illness both keeps us from accessing necessary support and community and keeps us from understanding and accepting ourselves.
After grappling with the profound need for mental health advocacy and awareness, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in English Literature where I work with disability studies and health humanities and refuse to stay silent about the impact of culture and media on mental health, illness, and well-being.
So, when one of my best friend started The Dakota Initiative in honor of her late brother who died by suicide in our teens, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to help her promote change in our community. Dakota is one of many people who have died due to the stigmatization of mental illness and the sheer lack of resources and support, and by uplifting his story, The Dakota Initiative disrupts the silence and stigma shrouding mental health that keeps so many of us from accessing the care, pride, and accommodations we need.
This initiative is important to us not only because it honors Dakota’s life, but also because it is determined to reform the system that failed Dakota–and that fails so many of us–and to end the stigma of mental illness.
