By Mylo Fisherman
Struggling with a mental illness is hard and having to deal with it alone on top of the societal stigma that surrounds it is even harder. Active Minds (AM) is one of Adelphi University’s newest clubs that promotes the awareness of mental health, breaking the stigma and silence surrounding it. The AM membership is a safe space and a community for people to openly express their concerns and emotions. Additionally, AM is a place anyone can go to for help and a sense of community.
Active Minds and Psychology Club members building molecules that are in play with different mental health conditions.
The AM membership is currently about 10 students who have a dedicated passion for mental health change. This club's events focus on ways to cope with stress and deal with negative emotions, including rock painting and stress ball making. They also had a yoga meeting and a friendship bracelet meeting. The Delphian asked a few eboard members of AM what their favorite types of meetings were about.
River Gorman, AM’s public relations manager and a first-year student, described Active Mind’s Drown Your Stress event, which took place on April 8. “[We] wrote down our biggest stressors and then we dumped them into a bucket of water. It was very therapeutic in a symbolic way to take control of stressful things in our lives.”
Ali Abbey, AM’s vice president and a junior mathematics major, described the “Science Behind Mental Health'' meeting which took place on March 4 and was a collaboration with the Psychology Club.
“AM collaborated with the Psychology Club to discuss different hormones [serotonin, dopamine, etc.] that are in play with different mental health conditions and then we physically built the molecules out of craft supplies. It was fun to collaborate with another organization and it was really interesting building the molecules as actually seeing them in real life gave a new perspective on mental health.”
Some members have a very special connection to this organization as a whole. When asked why they joined AM, junior psychology major Sammie Amber, answered that she has “a passion for mental health” and their “goal in life is to become a child psychologist.”
They added that they want to in their life “be able to create a safe space for people to have support for their mental health.”
When asked the same question, junior psychology major Ren Blake, stated that they joined AM because they “struggle a lot with mental health and this club was a place for social space where I can feel heard and supported in a place where I wouldn't be judged.”
Julianne Farrell, the founder of the organization and a junior psychology major, said, “This organization means that I can create a place for me and the Adelphi community can have a safe space. Since I have struggled a lot [with mental health] it is important that I can create a space to support the mental health of others. For the future of this club I hope that we can create a long-lasting impact on the Adelphi community. I hope to continue to collaborate with other orgs as well as bring in guest speakers from the AM organization.”
To learn more about their organization you can email them at activeminds@adelphi.edu, follow their instagram @active_minds_adelphi, and you can also join their MyAULife page, https://myaulife.adelphi.edu/organization/activeminds.
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