Camas High School Senior Archisha Misra and her friends have successfully started a Mental Health Awareness Club as their senior project.

Misra’s motivation for starting this club is because mental illness are often seen as a weakness.

Misra said, “my friends and I thought it was really important to create awareness about it.”

She also says she isn’t just targeting people with mental illnesses, but everyone because everyone feels stress or depression from time to time. She also says that people are afraid to speak up because it’s not “cool” and they don’t want anyone to know.

Mental Health to Misra and her friends is so important because it is such a big issue and a lot of people don’t know about it. It’s not necessarily just depression and other mental illnesses, but stress and other day to day things that may bring you down as well. 

The Mental Health Awareness Club is supposed to make everyone feel that what they are going through is normal and that everyone knows the feeling of being stressed about a homework assignment from time to time.

“It is okay to have those ups and downs,” Misra said.

Everyone in the club will be a support group for students dealing with a mental illness or simply the daily stress piled on them at school.

She says, “We plan on having social events and guest speaking series,” such as a doctor or sleep therapist, “Talk about how mental health can be shaped to your lifestyle and make sure it’s not affecting you.” 

Misra says the primary goal for the club is to make students feel that what they are going through is nothing they should be ashamed of, and that it is perfectly normal.

She wants to “create an impact on the community that is long lasting and it creates a happier and healthier environment.”

She also says that next year after her and her friends graduate, they will be handing over the baton to a junior officer, who has not been picked yet.

Featured Image by Marquette University.