This spring, Ross Szabo spoke to student, staff, and faculty at UC San Diego. He approached the difficult topic of mental health and illness. Wellness Intern Sarah Stewart documented her experience at the presentation and the important messages she gleaned from Szabo's presentation:
At age 16, Szabo, a football star and highly involved teenager was diagnosed as “bipolar with anger control problems and psychotic features.” Since mental illness was taboo, Szabo kept his internal struggles from friends and family until he attempted to take his own life. Today, Szabo has accepted the challenge of breaking down the stereotypes that deter people from reaching out and getting help.
“When I speak, I am not speaking only about me - I am speaking about a generation. The older generation was quiet about mental illness. It is time for us to stop losing to old ways of dealing with mental health issues and start winning the battle.”
Szabo’s challenge to students is to take away the stigma. This starts by changing how we define ourselves and the culture we live in. Maintaining the illusion of normality is what prevents us from reaching out. “No one is normal. What we have made normal is not talking about being different.”
To read more about Ross Szabo and his presentation, visit: http://wellness.ucsd.edu/RossSzabostudent.shtml
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