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According to statistics from Active Minds, the nation’s premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for students, 39% of students in college experience a significant mental health issue. Despite the fact that 280 people decide to not go through with a suicide attempt for every person who dies by suicide and that 67% of college students first tell a friend they are feeling suicidal before telling anyone else, suicide still remains the second leading cause of death among students. 1 in 5 adults have a diagnosable mental illness and 50% of the population will experience a mental health condition in our lifetime. Today’s young people, often referred to as the “anxious generation,” are actually much more likely to talk about mental health and are closer than ever to breaking the stigma that surrounds mental illness, making mental health awareness more important than ever.

 

This project is intended to continue supporting students by bringing more attention to the seriousness of mental illness and to spark conversations amongst young adults without romanticizing or sexualizing it. The main goal of this series is to take something that is all thought, habit, and emotion -- something that is not tangible and essentially invisible -- and make it into something that is tangible and visible through photography. In hopes to validate the feelings of those who do suffer from a mental illness and to educate those who don’t, this series is a glimpse into the realities of mental health and its everlasting effect, especially among college students.