Warning: This article discusses sensitive topics such as suicide and self harm. Discretion is advised.
All across Canadian universities, the topic of mental health is becoming more and more prominently featured. It has become clear to healthcare professionals that with each new year the number of university and college students affected by negative mental health rises. A study released by the Ontario University and College Health Association (OUCHA) in 2016 found that anxiety levels in students had increased by 8%, resulting in an astounding total of 65% (of the 25,000 students participating) being impacted. In addition to this, there was a rise in rates of depression, suicide contemplation, and attempted suicide. What we can gather from this information is that mental health is a huge problem in today’s society, and is a topic that should be more openly discussed on campus.
Queen’s University is fortunate enough to have a number of resources and clubs dedicated to aiding individuals who suffer from mental illness and negative mental health. These institutions are helping to educate those who don’t understand what the term ‘mental health’ means and how they can overcome the issues many of us face each day. I had the pleasure of speaking to Ampai Thammachack on her thoughts about the topic. Ampai is the founder and president of Step Above Stigma, a new initiative at Queen’s committed to ending the negative stigma surrounding mental health.
Ashleigh: Thank you for joining me today for this interview. Perhaps we can start with your name and position within Step Above Stigma?
Ampai: My name is Ampai Thammachack and I am the president and founder of Step Above Stigma.
Ashleigh: What exactly is Step Above Stigma?
Ampai: Step Above Stigma is a soon to be nationally registered charity that sells socks with a semicolon and heart symbol, along with the name of the organization on them. Our goal is to sell socks and have 100% of the proceeds go to mental health organizations, large and small, across Canada. It is an organization of about 60 volunteers. We currently have our executive board and then we also have specialized and general volunteers who all work together to hopefully try to convey the message that you’re never alone, and that we all need to work together to end the stigma around mental health. We do tons of events over the year, like advocacy campaigns and online campaigns; anything with the aim of getting the word out and hopefully have the funding make an impact on increasing the resources accessible to everyone on campus.
Ashleigh: That sounds like a fantastic organization to be involved with. Now, a large number of people aspire to create similar organizations here at Queen’s but it’s not always easy. What was your motivation? What drove you to start Step Above Stigma and make it what it is today?
Ampai: So I started Step Above Stigma in July of 2016 after I graduated high school. I did it because in high school, I didn’t know what mental health was. I had no clue; up to grade 10 or 11 I had never really heard of mental health and it wasn’t really a thing in my high school. Then in grade 12, one of my friends committed suicide and it rocked the school. Everyone’s lives changed. It was hard hitting and ended up changing everyone’s perspectives. It introduced mental health and the idea of mental illness into the lives of everyone who hadn’t known about it previously. So going through that experience, it was extremely impactful and it was just one of those wake up calls where you’re like “Wow, I never knew someone could be hurting this badly. I had no idea this could happen to someone who is in close proximity to me or to someone I see as mentally healthy and outgoing.” After that point, I started to realize that I had been experiencing mental health issues my whole life but I didn’t even know what they were. In grade 12 I had several breakdowns, to the point where I contemplated committing suicide myself, and I had no clue that any of that was related to mental health and mental illness. I started to realize that it wasn’t just myself or my friends, but that many people in my community had experienced these issues in different ways. So because of that, and realizing that it affects everyone, that if it doesn’t affect you it likely impacts someone you know, I figured that that in itself is enough to want to make change in your community. Then entering university and learning more about what mental health is only pushed me further towards making positive change. Once we formed the team in February, I found all my team members motivating me more and more. So every step along the way makes me want to work harder and harder.
Ashleigh: Well you’ve certainly done a lot with the program in the short time it has been around. You’ve already donated a cheque to Providence Care Hospital here in Kingston and that was a fantastic start. But what ultimately is your goal for Step Above Stigma within the next 5 years?
Ampai: Our goal is to raise $1,000,000, which is a huge goal, but I don’t see why we can’t do it. In the first year that we’ve been raising funds, we’ve managed to raise $20,000, which isn’t even close to a million. But that’s with the starting fees, now that we’ve created a team and established a process, I have no doubt that we’ll be able to reach that goal. Hopefully that money can go towards providing new resources to individuals, even us at Queen’s where the ratio of students to counselors is terrible. The counselors we do have are fantastic, but there’s just not enough of them, so that money might be able to help change that problem. Ideally once we hit a million dollars, that will come with awareness and sponsors that can further the cycle. Personally, I also hope that the socks themselves can start the conversation about mental health, and that we all have these issues.
Ashleigh: Well I have to say, one million dollars is an ambitious goal but I have no doubt that you and all the volunteers at Step Above Stigma are completely capable of achieving this goal. Now we’ve been talking mostly about the organization itself, but let’s take a moment to touch on what the organization stands for; addressing the stigma surrounding mental health. What exactly is mental health in your own words?
Ampai: In my own words, mental health is how you can wake up in the morning and want to pursue your day to day life. For me, I think that mental health, or rather how I define mental health, is by the way I feel every morning when I wake up and every evening when I go to bed. I feel that in those two moments, when you are most alone and able to be self reflective, you’re not influenced by outside stimulation or distractions. At these moments, you are truly by yourself and in tune with your thoughts. Depending on how you feel in those moments, you show where your mental health stands.
Ashleigh: That was very insightful Ampai. Now as I’m sure you know, there are a lot of people who don’t quite understand what mental illness means, especially within older generations. There’s a stigma that mental health doesn’t exist, that you can brush it off to the side, or even worse, that it is a cry for attention. But what can you tell our readers about acting to end the stigma?
Ampai: I think that when you’re speaking to these individuals it’s very important to firstly say “I respect your opinion and I understand why you might feel this way but…” then you follow that with real facts about mental health and how it impacts all of us. If you feel comfortable, you could add your own personal experience with mental illness, whether it stems from yourself or someone you know. It’s important that you make your argument to the individual without reaching the point where they feel hurt, but personal enough that they want to research it themselves and take an interest in mental health.
Ashleigh: Alright, this will be the last question for today. As you must be aware of, there are plenty of individuals all over the world that aren’t exactly straightforward when it comes to their own mental health. Part of this is due to stigma. Often, they are afraid of persecution from their own friends and family. What words of advice or encouragement could you give to somebody who is afraid of accepting their own mental health problems?
Ampai: As someone who has gone through it personally, I had no idea what mental health was and upon further reflection, I realized that I’d been suffering from not only poor mental health, but from a very skewed perception of who I was. I had low self esteem, very low confidence, and I did not believe in myself. Although I was bubbly and pretending that I was happy, on the inside I didn’t feel like I was worth it. It was only when I was trying to be more introspective and reflective on the reasons why I might have been doing destructive things to myself and the reasons why I might have not loved myself as much as I should have that I understood that I had poor mental health. It took me a long time to admit that to myself because I thought that I was fine and that everything was going to be ok. So coming from my own personal experience, one of the biggest pieces of advice you can give someone is to tell them that you need to understand that it doesn’t matter how successful you may have been in one way, or how happy you try to be, it takes a lot of strength to admit it to yourself. Maybe you’re not ok and maybe things aren’t the way they seem, but accepting that will change your perspective on who you are and the way your world is shaped. Once you do, you can restart at zero and build yourself up stronger than you ever were before.
At the end of the day, nobody’s perfect. It’s one of the quintessential aspects of being human. We are perfectly flawed and unique in our own way. The truth is that everyday, thousands of people suffer in silence because there is the preconceived notion that acknowledging mental health equates to weakness. But one of the amazing things about humanity is that we have the capability to band together and celebrate each other’s unique qualities. Step Above Stigma is one such example of how people can collaborate in an effort to support those who need it the most.
For more information on Step Above Stigma and their mission to end the stigma around mental illness, you can find them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or online at www.stepabovestigma.com.