(Aubrey Felsen)
Disclose personal mental issues and struggles rather than deny feelings and hide them from those who can help — that was the message from speaker Andy Dunn at an all-school assembly in Gordon Parks Arts Hall on Feb. 27.
Mr. Dunn, the author of “Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind,” gave a speech about his mental health journey.
Mr. Dunn spoke last year to the Finance Club and became popular among the students and faculty.
At Thursday’s assembly Mr. Dunn talked about his experience with mental health and having bipolar disorder. He explained that bipolar is an illness and is not identity defining.
“We say Andy is bipolar, which would be the equivalent of saying Andy is cancer. No one is cancer. No one is bipolar, we have bipolar,” said Mr. Dunn.
Mr. Dunn’s speech contained intimate and personal stories, engaging students helping them to understand bipolar disorder’s effects and facts.
“So when you receive a bipolar diagnosis, it’s terrifying, because if you go study it, you’re like OK, there’s a one in five chance that the way I die is that I end my own life,” Mr. Dunn said.
Mr. Dunn emphasized the importance of having a trusted friend that you can share any feelings with and can be fully vulnerable with.
(Aubrey Felsen)
“You need to find a friend who you can tell anything to, and if you don’t have that person here or yet, that’s OK,” Mr. Dunn said. “But I’d like to ask you to make it a goal for the next six months. That is more important than any academic goal you have in your mind or any extracurricular goal. I want you to wake up in six months and be like, ‘I have a true friend.’”
Having a true friend not only is an important part of life, but also links to Mr. Dunn’s main point of not denying your mental health, and disclosing it to those around you that can help.
Mr. Dunn said, “It almost ruined my life to be in denial and that’s another thing I want you to take away today is disclose rather than denying.”
Following the assembly, students left to attend 30-minute wellness workshops, which they had selected previously. The workshop topics ranged from lo-fi music and studying to yoga to skin care.
