The ETSU chapter of Active Minds, a national organization dedicated to destigmatizing mental health issues for college students, held its first meeting on Jan. 30.
Active Minds is an organization dedicated to making mental health as easy to talk about as physical health. With over 700 campuses and 600,000 students reached, the organization brings suicide and mental health struggles to the forefront of everyday conversation.
Eric Feltman, THRIVE coordinator and staff counselor, and Emily Hodge, graduate assistant and master’s student in counseling, decided to bring the organization to ETSU. They wanted to increase peer to peer interaction and discussion when it comes to mental health.
“If counselors are the only ones having the conversation, then I think that could be part of the problem,” said Feltman. “I want more and more people who aren’t counselors talking to more and more people who aren’t counselors.”
To help start the mental health conversations, they have a few events planned for the semester.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, the organization will be doing Ask the Sexpert at the Feb. 13 meeting. A trained counseling center representative will answer all your anonymously given questions about sex and talk about building healthy relationships.
From March 23 through 27, they have a few activities planned for Stress Less Week: making stress balls, active time with Active Minds, painting rocks and an aggravation station. At the aggravation station, students can work their stress out by breaking things.
During the meetings on April 9 and 23, nominations and elections will be held for new officers. The current officers are President Emily Hodge, Vice President Leah Patton, Secretary Lindsey Holt and Treasurer Amanda Miller.
They will wrap up the new semester with a big end of the year party on May 7.
Overall, they want to create a safe space for students to come and discuss the things going on in their lives.
“College can make you feel really isolated, so the purpose of Active Minds is to reach out to students who wouldn’t normally join other organizations,” said Hodge. “It gives you a sense of purpose. It gives you a sense of you’re not alone, and you don’t have to be alone.”
For more information, contact Emily Hodge at hodgeem@etsu.edu or Eric Feltman at feltman@etsu.edu, and stay up to date with meetings and announcements on their Instagram @activemindsetsu.
