i’m currently sitting cross-legged on my living room floor because the couch has clean laundry on it that i swore i would fold three days ago. there’s an empty monster can to my left and my dog keeps staring at me like i owe her rent. it’s january in the midwest and it’s somehow both freezing and humid at the same time which is honestly the perfect weather metaphor for trying to talk about mental health in public.
so yeah. how to raise mental health awareness in your community when you yourself are still kinda a mess.
i’m not gonna pretend i’ve got this figured out. last week i literally cried in the mcdonald’s drive-thru because the speaker guy asked “how’s your day going” and i couldn’t lie fast enough. true story. anyway.
why even bother if it feels this awkward
i used to think mental health awareness meant big marches or those perfectly curated instagram carousels with sans-serif quotes on pastel backgrounds. then i had like four back-to-back panic episodes in 2025 and realized nobody in my actual zip code was posting those carousels. they were just… quietly falling apart. same as me.
so i decided to stop waiting for someone cooler to start the conversation.
first thing i did was super lame: i changed my whatsapp status to “if ur also having a bad brain week hmu no pressure”. within like 40 minutes three people i hadn’t talked to since high school replied “yo same”. that was it. that was the whole spark. pathetic? maybe. effective? weirdly yes.
stuff that kinda worked (even when it felt dumb)
• stuck post-it notes on lampposts near the park wrote stuff like “you’re allowed to not be fine today” and left a QR code to 988. about half got ripped down by kids or rain. still worth it. one lady told me at the gas station she saw one and called her sister she hadn’t spoken to in two years.
• started “porch hangs” basically i just sit on my front steps with a thermos of bad coffee every other saturday. whoever wants to join does. we don’t even talk about mental health every time. sometimes we just complain about inflation or how the new taylor swift album hits different when you’re sad.
here’s a couple actually useful links i usually send people when they dm me at 1 a.m.:
- https://www.nami.org/support-education (they have local groups almost everywhere)
- https://988lifeline.org/chat/ (text or chat if calling feels too much)
- https://www.mentalhealthamerica.net (free quick screens that don’t make you feel judged)
things that flopped so hard i still cringe
tried making an instagram reel with text overlay that said “normalize crying in your car ✨” i filmed it in my driveway. my neighbor walked by mid-sentence and gave me the most confused thumbs-up of all time. the reel got 47 views. 12 were me refreshing it. never again.
also attempted a group chat called “no toxic positivity zone”. within 48 hours someone posted a “good vibes only” meme. i left the group. then felt guilty and rejoined. chaos.
where i’m still screwing up in 2026 (yes really)
i still freeze when someone asks me directly “how are you REALLY”. i still overthink every single flyer i print. i still get heart palpitations before i hit “post” on anything even slightly vulnerable.
and honestly? i think that’s part of the point.
nobody needs another perfect advocate. we need regular people who are willing to be a little uncomfortable so other people feel less alone.
so if you’re reading this and thinking “i could never do that”, same. i still think that every single time i drag my folding chair outside.
start with something tiny and stupid. a text. a post-it. leaving your instagram comments on. telling one friend “i’m actually not okay right now”. that’s enough.
you don’t have to be fixed to help. you just have to show up messy.
anyway. if you’ve tried anything — even if it bombed spectacularly — tell me. i love failure stories more than success ones tbh. makes me feel less alone in my chaos.
no pressure tho. seriously.
(or don’t. go drink water and stare at the wall for 10 minutes. that’s also valid.)
okay bye i’m gonna go fold that laundry now. probably.
