TO THE EDITOR:
I’m writing to thank you for the piece in The Daily Tar Heel about mental health. It’s telling how internalized the stigma of mental health is that many people, including me, don’t think anything is wrong. With more publicity and awareness regarding mental health issues I’m hopeful that more people feel comfortable reaching out to get the help they need.
That said, I feel it’s hard to bring up mental health to the administration for things such as addressing absences. With my correspondence with my teachers, I feel if my depression and anxiety were to get worse due to outside stressors and I miss a week, it would be up to interpretations as to whether I had a “legitimate” health issue. I would like to see mental health issues explicitly included in policies so as to help students feel what they’re going through is valid and that UNC is willing to help.
Kieran Roush
First-year
Psychology
