Healing the Heart

I want to thank you, foremost, for being brave. A website/blog like this takes courage. The TCU Counseling Center is lacking something strong and personal like this, and I feel like this will revolutionize how mental health is seen on campus. There is absolutely a stigma about mental health, not only at TCU but all around the world. As a nursing major hoping to one day be a Nurse Practitioner in Mental Health, I shouldn't be ashamed of my own history of struggle with emotional traumas, but I am. I tried going to the TCU Counseling Center, but each time I was self-conscious about people that saw me going in the door, people who saw me walking out the door, and especially those in the waiting area. In the waiting area it is almost as if each of us is sitting around trying to guess the others' problems: "Does she have an eating disorder?", "Is he depressed?", "Was she raped?", "Is she a cutter?". All these things and more. Despite the talent of the mental professionals and counselors at the Heath Center and Counseling Center, there is still such a sense of demise and embarrassment when you walk in. Like you've given up "doing it on your own" and need "help," and worst of all: now everyone knows it. After leaving the Counseling Center last year, I suppose someone saw me leaving, because at least three friends texted me asking me if everything was okay. As glad as I was that I had friends that cared, I was more embarrassed than anything that they knew something was wrong. Maybe it wasn't even that something was wrong, but maybe just that something wasn't right. That is why I was so relieved that TCU FrogSpeak began. Not only is a journal a way of healing the heart, but as a blog, it is a way to share your story with others who have gone through the same thing. I appreciate the mission of FrogSpeak and cannot wait to see what amazing and life-changing success it will absolutely have on TCU's campus and in the world.