This Is My Brave empowers individuals to put their names and faces to their true stories of recovery from mental illness and addiction.
According to a 2020 survey by Mental Health America, 57% of Americans with a mental illness received no treatment. Often stigma and discrimination towards people with mental illness is the reason individuals avoid or delay seeking help for their conditions.
Research has shown that the most effective anti-stigma efforts are contact-based programs featuring individuals with lived experience. This Is My Brave’s 2016 pilot study revealed positive results in reducing public stigma in that audience members experienced a decrease in stigma, improvements in beliefs about recovery and empowerment, and greater willingness to seek treatment.
Your contributions to This Is My Brave fund the creation of new mental health storytelling initiatives featuring storytellers from across the US, and furthers research examining the impact of our work. By supporting This Is My Brave, you help get us closer to a world where we won’t have to call it “brave” for talking openly about mental illness. We’ll simply call it talking.
This Is My Brave provides a supportive community and creative outlet for people to share their personal stories of living with or loving someone with mental illness and/or substance use disorder:
On Stage: through This Is My Brave – The Show, presented in cities across the U.S. and in Australia
On Screen: through our 2019 mini-documentary and our 2021 documentary on teen mental health entitled Our Turn to Talk, which raise even greater awareness for mental illness and the work This Is My Brave does to bring attention to mental health issues
Online: through the hundreds of stories shared on our website through video and the written word
In Person: through our virtual events, you can Be Brave with Us and start conversations about mental illness and substance use disorder that offer hope to those around you!
One in five Americans experiences a mental illness in any given year. Mental illness is common, but speaking about it is not.
Stigma and shame often prevent people living with mental illness from seeking the support and treatment they so desperately need.
Your investment makes it possible for more people to share their stories of hope and inspiration for those who need it most. It could be the story that saves someone’s life.
