Misconceptions about mental illness are harmful to those with mental illness. To improve the ways in which this marginalized group is treated in society, distribution of accessible, accurate,and up-to-date mental health information is of paramount importance. To that end, I partnered with Breaking Taboo, a nonprofit organization with a large web-based audience, whose mission is saving lives through destigmatizing mental illness. My primary goals for this project are to raise awareness about common mental health conditions and to address misconceptions fueling the stigma surrounding mental illness. One of the best ways to dismantle stigma is to engage people in empathy and understanding. I aim to provide accessible information that demystifies mental illness in a way that isn’t reductive to the lived experiences of its sufferers. Activities performed include writing articles that explain scientific findings pertaining to mental illnesses using language that can be understood by a broad audience and then posting the articles to Breaking Taboo’s website (breaking-taboo.org). Two articles have been published to date. One presents a dynamic view of depression and discusses mean variation in brain pathway connectivity. Another outlines societal attitudes toward antidepressants and explains their mechanisms. A third article is in revision. It discusses how societal perpetuation of stigma occurs and mindsets that are protective against it. Key ideas that I hope to convey to readers are that mental illness is dynamic and highly responsive to the environment and that people with mental illness are not to be feared or excluded.

Gabe would like to extend his thanks to his faculty sponsor, Dr. Brenda Kirchhoff, for her help in realizing this project. In addition, he would also like to thank Serena Sun at Breaking Taboo, for her help in making these articles accessible to a large audience.