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Advocate Wants To Replace Stigmatizing Halloween Images of Mental Illness With Her Face And Others

by Pete Earley
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(10-26-16) The success we had persuading Walmart and Rubies Costume Company to remove their offensive suicide kit and marginalizing Halloween costumes from their stores this week, gave my friend and fellow mental health advocate, Jennifer Marshall, an idea.

Why not change the face of mental illness at Halloween from those ghoulish and frightening images into real faces. 

She is launching a campaign tonight at the non-profit, This Is My Brave, that she co-founded, to do just that.

This Halloween, Show The World the #FaceOfMentalIllness

October 26, 2016  Blog by Jennifer Marshall at This Is My Brave

Every Halloween mental illness seems to be exploited and mocked for entertainment value and profit. Companies using horrible images of mental patients or mental hospitals, and even creating “costumes” depicting the outward wounds of dealing with mental illness.

Thankfully, due to the work of countless dedicate mental health advocates, society is beginning to wake up. Over the past few weeks, offensive costumes have been removed from websites and shelves, Halloween attractions have been shut down, and people are being educated about the realities of what it is like to live with mental illness through stories shared.

And we’re still able to celebrate and enjoy Halloween.

But when the public has this image in their head of what mental illness looks like, we need to speak up.

 

Tonight during our weekly #BraveChat on Twitter, we’re launching a campaign to change the perception of mental illness through photos. And we need your help!

Join us by sharing a photo of yourself with the hashtag #FaceOfMentalIllness. Or, if you don’t do Twitter, you can still add your voice to the campaign by taking a selfie holding a sign that says:

This is the #FaceOfMentalIllness

and share it on Facebook or Instagram. Share a little about your story and why you feel it’s important that we speak up. Be sure to tag us (@ThisIsMyBrave) so that we can re-share to amplify our voices.

“You know this would never happen for other health conditions. You wouldn’t have a Halloween attraction about a cancer ward. It is mocking something that is a very serious illness.”

— Mary Giliberti, Executive Director of NAMI to Washington Post

Use your voice and join us!

Jennifer Marshall/ Comment

Mental Illness, Twitter Chat, #FaceOfMentalIllness
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Pete Earley is the bestselling author of such books as The Hot House and Crazy. When he is not spending time with his family, he tours the globe advocating for mental health reform.

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About Pete Earley

Pete Earley is the bestselling author of such books as The Hot House and Crazy. When he is not spending time with his family, he tours the globe advocating for mental health reform.

As a former reporter for The Washington Post, Pete uses his journalistic background to take a fair-minded approach to the story all while weaving an interesting tale for the reader.

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