Wouldn’t it be strange if schools required PE Class (aka: Physical Education or Gym Class) for students with physical health conditions such as asthma, allergies, and obesity? And what if PE was optional for the so-called healthy kids? Can you imagine the shame and stigma for the kids in Gym Class?  Thankfully, schools don’t do that! But it’s a decent metaphor for how mental health is handled in K-12 schools. In the vast majority of schools, mental health is considered…

In our new book, Mental Health 101 for Teens, all four authors talk about our personal mental health journeys, and there’s one thing we have in common: back when we were teens, we all felt some level of mental health stigma in the culture around us. Mental health stigma is the common shame, fear, and misconceptions people have surrounding the topic of mental health. Stigma permeates our culture as if mental health is only experienced by people who are somehow…