Michelle Yang, Speaker
I cannot begin to express how it felt to tell my story in front of a large audience, especially one of predominantly Asian Americans. Though I had done many podcasts and online interviews as a mental health advocate by now and done some smaller speaking engagements, this Ohio Asian American Mental Health Conference was the first one for which I was being flown halfway across the country as a plenary. It was the first with a targeted Asian American audience who was there to learn about mental health.
Leading up to the conference, I was an anxious wreck. I spent hours and hours on my presentation deck and rehearsed my talk so many times, recording and listening to myself on repeat.
When the day came, I found myself more emotional than expected while giving my talk. After all, talking about my journey with bipolar disorder is deeply personal. It is not something I did publicly until February of this year. I didn’t even do it in private very often.
When I was finished, the audience honored me with a standing ovation. The first one of my life. I received the only standing ovation of the conference.
I was even more moved by the earnest questions and comments I received, of all the people who came up to me through the rest of the conference. There were moms with tears in their eyes who told me they gained a perspective about their children. Many students who have also experienced the same struggle of not having their problems taken seriously because they were doing well enough in school. More who were uncertain about their future, having recently been diagnosed with a mental health condition, who told me they were comforted by my story. I tried to drill in – LIFE GETS BETTER! A mental illness diagnosis is not a death sentence. Stigma is the real problem, not the condition.
Lastly, I realized to many adults and loved ones were still equating good grades with good mental health. These two are not the same.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to realize my dream as a mental health advocate. Now after over five podcast interviews, a Psych Byte web interview for the International Bipolar Foundation, a NAMI Washington conference talk, this Ohio talk, and a future talk at the University of Washington scheduled for November, I finally feel like I can call myself a mental health advocacy speaker.
Please wish me luck for many more, so that I can reach more people with the message that mental illness does not define you, that life gets better, that living well happily is very much within reach.
