Senior Project: Carina Womack

For our final Wednesday of summer, we have one more Senior Project to share with you. What a delight it has been to have a sneak peek into all the hard work these seniors have done this past year. We wish them the best in their future endeavors. Finishing off our series, Carina Womack shares her project with us today.

The topic of my senior project was “destigmatizing mental health.” It is no secret that anxiety and depression are immensely prevalent amongst adolescents and adults alike. After struggling with an anxiety disorder myself, I noticed how lonely it was to silently struggle. As a twelve-year-old, I was so worried about what people would think about me if they knew what I was battling, so I hid it for years and didn’t seek help as soon as I should have because of the false perceptions I had about mental illness. For my project, I researched how our culture views mental health from both a clinical, diagnostic standpoint and from a general public view. Through reading and learning I observed the correlation between societal stigmas that have evolved over the years, and the impact they have on those struggling with a mental illness. We all have mental health the same way we have physical health, therefore the same amount of time and effort we put into our physical health should be applied to our mental health as well. The same way you’d seek help if something was physically wrong, you should treat a mental ailment the same way. Stigmas create a divide between people and isolate those who are struggling instead of finding ways to understand what they are going through and make room for it. It is going to take years to break down the stigmas that have inundated our society, but it starts by releasing the power of shame and embarrassment over your story.