In the United States, May is more than a month of spring blooms and graduations. It is Mental Health Awareness Month—a time carved out of the year to demand visibility, to foster compassion, and to insist that mental health be treated not as an afterthought but as essential. This year, we are being called to go further than simple acknowledgment.
The themes for 2025 make that clear:
- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reminds us that “In Every Story, There’s Strength.”
- Mental Health America (MHA) urges us to “Turn Awareness Into Action.”
These themes are not just slogans. They are a direct challenge to the culture of silence, shame, and institutional apathy that continues to surround mental health. And for many Iowans, that challenge is both deeply personal and politically urgent.
Storytelling Is Strength—But Only If We Are Heard
Let us be blunt: mental illness is still heavily stigmatized. Sharing your story often comes at a cost. For many, the fear of losing a job, alienating family, or being dismissed by doctors is real. This fear is not unfounded. Even today, people with depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia are more likely to be criminalized than supported. People with anxiety may be labeled dramatic. Those with OCD are reduced to punchlines.
But every time someone shares the truth of their struggle, they chip away at the stigma. And that is what NAMI’s 2025 theme, “In Every Story, There’s Strength,” is all about.
You are not a burden. You are a human being navigating a system that too often fails to see your worth.
JT Santana
The act of storytelling—through blogs, podcasts, peer support groups, or even a quiet conversation with a friend—is resistance. It refuses shame. It challenges stereotypes. It normalizes the spectrum of mental health experiences.
That is one reason why I launched the becoming project on my blog. Through essays and interviews, I explore the messiness of mental health, trauma, resilience, and identity. The project makes space for those who are still “becoming”—still figuring it out—without demanding perfection, resolution, or linear healing. In that space, story becomes medicine. It connects us.
Awareness Is Not Enough. Action Is Necessary.
The second theme, from Mental Health America, is sharper: “Turn Awareness Into Action.” It demands more than sympathy. It demands political will. Policy change. Financial investment. Community engagement.
It demands a real answer to questions like:
- Why are we still incarcerating people in Iowa jails who should be receiving treatment?
- Why are so many of our rural mental health clinics closing?
- Why are wait times for therapists measured in months?
Awareness campaigns without systemic change are like planting seeds in scorched earth. Pretty. But nothing grows.
If you care about mental health, fight for funding. Fight for mental health parity in insurance. Push back against efforts to cut Medicaid or restrict access to antidepressants, therapy, or addiction support. Support organizations doing real work, like Mental Health America and NAMI, and use your voice to demand more from elected officials.
Iowa: Behind on Services, Ahead on Resilience
In Iowa, we face a unique mental health landscape: rural isolation, provider shortages, and a lack of inpatient beds have created a mental health crisis that feels both quiet and crushing.
According to the 2024 State of Mental Health in America report, Iowa ranked 46th in overall access to care. That means tens of thousands of Iowans with mental health conditions are going without services—not because they do not want help, but because they cannot get it.
In Iowa, the problem is not denial. It is access.
State of Mental Health in America
Resources like Your Life Iowa are helping fill that gap by offering crisis support, treatment referrals, and education. But patchwork efforts are not a substitute for comprehensive care. It is time we pressure our state lawmakers to stop treating mental health like a side issue. Mental health is health.
State Representative Dan Gosa has helped raise awareness, including by directing constituents to mental health resources. But constituents must keep pushing for legislation that actually prioritizes public health over political posturing. Tax breaks for corporations are not the same as trauma care for communities.
Visit Daniel Gosa’s page on Legiscan to contact him with your concerns.
When Silence Kills: Stigma and Suicide
Mental health stigma is not just annoying. It is deadly. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Iowans ages 15–34. Veterans in our state die by suicide at almost twice the national average. The LGBTQIA+ community faces rates of depression and self-harm that are heartbreaking—and entirely preventable.
And yet we still treat mental illness as something you should “snap out of” or “pray through.” That must stop.
The White House proclamation for Mental Health Awareness Month says:
“We must continue working to eliminate the stigma around mental health conditions and ensure people get the support they need.”
That must include expanding Medicaid, funding school counselors, and ensuring that law enforcement does not become the de facto mental health response team.
If You Are Struggling, You Are Not Alone
If you or someone you love is facing depression, anxiety, addiction, or trauma, help exists. And reaching out is not a weakness—it is an act of courage.
Here are direct resources for Iowans:
- Your Life Iowa: Offers support for mental health, substance use, and gambling problems. Free, confidential, 24/7.
- National Council for Mental Wellbeing: Connects you to providers, policy updates, and training programs.
- Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741741
- NAMI Iowa: Peer-led support groups, education, and legislative advocacy
And remember—mental health is not just about “disorders.” It is about stress, grief, burnout, shame, trauma, and recovery. It is about the fullness of what it means to be human.
You are not broken. You are responding to a world that has not always been kind.
The becoming Project in Davenport, Iowa
The becoming Project: Reclaiming Mental Health Through Narrative
One of the goals of my becoming project is to challenge the false binaries of “sick vs. well” or “struggling vs. healed.” In reality, most of us live in the in-between spaces. We manage. We cope. We try again tomorrow.
In becoming, I have written about loss, grief, therapy, diagnosis, medication, recovery, and identity. But I have also written about joy. About laughter. About the small victories that matter—like finally making that phone call for help, or speaking out loud the thing you were afraid to say even to yourself.
Sharing our stories does not just heal us. It gives others permission to speak. Permission to exist. That is how stigma crumbles—under the weight of truth.
From Awareness to Action: What You Can Do Right Now
You do not have to be a therapist, activist, or policymaker to make a difference. Here are steps anyone can take this Mental Health Awareness Month:
- Share your story (anonymously or openly)—on your blog, with a friend, or on social media or reach out to me and I will help you get your story out there
- Support a local mental health nonprofit with a donation or volunteer time
- Write to your legislators demanding increased funding and better access to care
- Speak up when you hear someone use stigmatizing language
- Check in with friends and family who might be struggling
Do not wait for someone else to fix it. You are someone.
Final Thoughts: This Fight Is Far from Over
Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder, not a resolution. A starting point, not a finish line. We still live in a society that punishes vulnerability and rewards silence. We still stigmatize medication. We still glorify burnout. We still dismiss trauma. That must change.
The truth is, mental health stigma thrives in silence. But in every story, there is strength. And when we turn awareness into action, we do more than raise a banner—we save lives.
