The day before Halloween, nearly 300 students, faculty and community members, wearing red, gathered together at the BYU–Hawaii Flag circle. They came to participate in the Mental Health Awareness Walk put on by the BYUH Counseling and Disability Services and Dr. Eric Orr, assistant professor Faculty of Sciences, Counseling Services.
Throughout the morning, participants walked between six presentation booths–each prepared to share information about various mental disorders. The presentations included teaching the participants more about eating disorders, mood disorders, which includes bipolar and depression, anxiety disorders, suicide, PTSD and stress disorder and Indigenous disorders.
Tyler Hill, a special education teacher at Waialua High & Intermediate School, was one of the participants in the Mental Health Awareness Walk. Hill, a 2019 BYUH alumni, said he and his girlfriend came to support his friend, Aden Pierce, who volunteered to present on mood disorders at the walk.
Hill said he learned more about why acknowledging our mental health is so important.
“I thought it was a good opportunity to learn myself and to help others become more aware also [of mental health],” said Pierce, a senior from Santa Rosa, California, majoring in exercise science.
“Education is such an important part and the more we understand about the mental challenges that we go through. I think it’s a lot easier to be more compassionate for people and even ourselves ... It’s not bad to reach out for help.”
Hill said he enjoyed learning about PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, and how support animals, like dogs, can help stabilize people with the condition.
“There’s a lot of different avenues to get help for whatever you’re struggling with. It might sound weird to some people, ‘Like animals can help with mental problems?’ but it does.”
One of the mood disorder group presenters, Summer Edwards, a senior, majoring in exercise and sports science, from Highland, Utah, said she was part of the walk because she wants to “get rid of the stigma around mental health, because a lot of people are unaware or afraid of the subject of mental health.”
“The walk is to help people realize we are all normal,” Edwards continued. “I think we just need to really put ourselves in their shoes.”
Pierce said he dealt with mental health challenges such as depressive thoughts and anxiety brought on by the pressures of school and other priorities. He sought counseling, something he had never done before, during the Fall 2021 semester, Pierce shared.
“I had this idea in my head that I didn’t need to see a counselor. I thought I was doing pretty well. But I came to the realization that I did need help and that there’s stuff that I could work through … to be mentally healthy.”
Pierce said counseling has helped him to better his own life and his educational experience. He explained mental health must not be ignored and it’s “important to reduce the stigma that these disorders are rare and uncommon.”
He believes it is everyone’s responsibility to be educated and made aware of mental health problems, whether they deal with them or not.