ABOUT ME

Hello, my name is Matthew Milligan and I am a senior at Science Leadership Academy. I decided to make this website as my senior capstone project. For people who may not know much about my school, a senior capstone is a cumulative project that demonstrates what a student has learned throughout their high school career. This has been a self-designed, individualized project that I have been working on all year. My goal was to identify a problem in my community and solve it using my school's core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection to guide me.

 

First and foremost I would like to say that I appreciate you visiting my website. Whether you are a student, parent, or teacher, I thank you for taking the time to prioritize and learn about mental health. Mental health is often a neglected topic even though it is vital to a person's overall well being. Mental health and mental illnesses can be difficult to understand or uncomfortable to talk about, but if they go unchecked there can be devastating effects to a person's quality of life. I feel very passionately about the promotion of mental health because it is something that I have struggled with previously. While I can say that I have learned and grown from many of my experiences, I still have to manage my mental health and mental illnesses every day. Like with most things in life, some days are better than others. There was a period of my life where most of my days were bad rather than good, and I had to work hard to build myself out of that rut. Luckily for me, I had a wonderful support system that was able to provide the encouragement and resources that I needed to get to the better place where I am now.

 

While I had access to caring parents, reassuring friends, and trained professionals, I also became aware that not everyone was as lucky or privileged as I was to have those things. Some people have parents who do not understand or refuse to do so, while some families are in rough financial positions that leave them unable to obtain help. Sometimes the issue can even be as simple as a kid not knowing how to talk to their parents or fearing to do so. Whatever the reason, there is only so far a kid can go to improve their mental health or fight a mental illness on their own. This was something that deeply troubled me as I would sometimes have friends who found themselves in situations like those. It was frustrating for me to be aware of a problem so many people in my position face knowing that I was fortunate enough to have had avoided that trouble myself. I wanted to find a way to help the people trapped in these hopeless scenarios, but I could not figure out how.

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From my frustration came the idea for this website. While I know it is no substitute for professional help, I want this website to be a starting place for confused people to help themselves or others. My goal is to educate people about mental health and mental illness while offering them solutions and guidance. I want this website to be a safe space where struggling students can learn about what they are going through and how to get help, especially in regards to self advocating to their parents/guardians. In addition, I want this to be a place where parents/guardians and teachers can educate themselves so that they have a better awareness of mental health and can be equipped to help their kids with their mental illnesses if needed. 

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I hope this website is able to offer comfort to anyone who has been affected by poor mental health or a mental illness. Having a mental illness harms not only the person who has it, but the people who care about that person as well. I strongly believe that just as one's physical health should not be downplayed, neither should one's mental health. It is equally as important to be happy and well adjusted as it is to be breathing because, after all, life is meant to be enjoyed.