It’s up to us to help normalize conversations about mental health. Here are 5 ways you can get started:

1. Share your own experience. If you have experience with anxiety, depression, PTSD, or another mental illness, one of the best things you can do is share. You can do this on social media, on a platform like Medium or Reddit, or on a mental health forum like the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

2. Be conscious of your language. Phrases that we use multiple times a day like “they’re crazy” or “that’s insane” are actually hurting progress. Challenge yourself to use more descriptive words that don’t carry negative connotations towards mental illness.

3. Normalize the concept of Mental Fitness. We talk about mental fitness all the time. While practices like meditation, breathwork, and gratitude exercises don’t cure mental illness, they certainly help. These practices also have a certain level of stigma attached to them and the best way to make them more acceptable is to talk about them. 

4. Reach out to friends and family. Don’t wait for someone to come to you with their problems, actively reach out and check in on your community. Normalize reaching out with your own problems too!

5. Have open and honest conversations. When you open up to people, they open up to you. Normalize having deep conversations about your emotions, challenges, feelings, and struggles. Not only will this help fight the stigma surrounding mental illness, but it will also lead to more fulfilling and deep relationships in your life.

Do you have another way we can work together to normalize mental health conversations? Let us know in the comments!