Wellness Corner 13: OCD
Hey Falcons,
We were fortunate to have the chance to hear from wellness speaker Dr. Elizabeth McIngvale earlier this week.
Dr. Elizabeth McIngvale is the founder of Peace of Mind, which is an organization to help people struggling with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). She herself was diagnosed with OCD as a teenager. After struggling with OCD and going to in-patient care, she was able to overcome and manage her OCD. She is now telling her story to spread awareness for OCD and help others overcome it as well.
Here are three main takeaways from the assembly:
Talk openly and transparently about mental health. When someone speaks up about what they feel or what they are going through, this is not only the key to diagnose the presence of mental illness but also to raise awareness. As students, let’s foster a safe and open dialogue about mental health.
Remove stigma from mental health. Open dialogue about mental health can be helpful with this too. Educating yourself and others, being conscious about your use of language (e.g. not using OCD as an adjective), and empowering others are all great ways to go about this.
Above all, we Falcons can do what Falcons do best: embody our core values. Showing kindness and respect toward those with mental health conditions is perhaps one of the most significant ways you can (a) brighten up others’ days and (b) be a model for others to increase awareness and understanding of mental health.
I personally found Dr. McIngvale’s talk super insightful and took away so much new knowledge. I hope you did, too! Let’s all work together to raise awareness and decrease the stigma surrounding mental health. Together, we can.
