IDONTMIND campaign launches for Mental Illness Awareness Week
Melissa Benoist is supporting the IDONTMIND campaign launched by Chris Wood.
October 3, 2017
The silent struggles of everyday life for more than 18 percent of the USA’s population often goes unseen.
Mental Illness Awareness Week started in 1990 and ever since then became nationally recognized. In 2017, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Dual Diagnosis, Depression, Schizophrenia and Psychosis are their focus. To help fight the stigma that is commonly associated with mental illness, actor Chris Wood, best known for his role as Mon-El on “Supergirl”, started a campaign called IDONTMIND.
Physical illnesses are constantly treated and yet when issues turn to the mind, the whole perspective switches.
“I don’t know why our minds have become the thing that we don’t focus on in regards to our health,” said Chris Wood to TV Insider. “It’s vital to our survival that we take care of our minds and mental health, that we listen to the warning signs—a large part of the reason that we ignore the warning signs is because there is such fear and shame surrounding mental health.”
The inspiration for this campaign came from the personal experiences with having a family member struggling.
“It was about a year before he actually passed away that we started noticing some erratic behaviors and all that,” said Wood. “And it’s not that my father didn’t have any problems his whole life, and then all of a sudden had this happen to him at the age of 59. What it was more so is the fact that he felt like he couldn’t speak up about having problems throughout his whole life.”
With a simple phrase, the goal is to start conversations on mental illnesses and hopefully get help to those who need it.
“Our mission to defeat the stigma surrounding mental illness starts with a simple phrase: IDONTMIND,” said Wood.
