Bryant Pahl

“Everyone is hiding something. We all, to some degree, deal with stress, and a lot of us deal with anxiety and depression. The fact that there is this stigma on mental health prevents us from having the open conversations I think I should have had with Annie. What hurts me most is that despite telling her about my thoughts of suicide during my term as president, she still made it a point for me and everyone else not to worry. A lot of people feel the same way, I think; we don’t want anyone to worry about us. After she was gone, I didn’t do much to address my mental health because I felt the same – I didn’t want anyone to worry. I bottled up so many emotions to the point where I wrote goodbye letters to my friends, family, and mentors. I suddenly realized I was about to lose my life because I neglected my emotions. I just needed to tell someone how I felt. From there, and after two years of really taking the time to address my grief, depression, and anxiety, it’s crazy to see the impact that I had on people by being honest about my emotions. Being vulnerable is hard because we’re afraid of the people who shut us down for feeling a certain way, and that’s fair, we don’t have to open up to everyone. But you don’t want to restrict yourself from expressing the way you feel. It’ll bottle up and leave you somewhere really dark.” - Bryant Pahl, Iota Class | Humans of Psi