Sammi Boas: From the Daily Northwestern, I’m Sammi Boas,

Haley Fuller: And I’m Haley Fuller. Welcome to “Speak your Mind” a new podcast dedicated to discussing mental health on Northwestern’s campus. Episodes will come out every other week and will be focused on different issues relating to mental health and self-care. Our goal is to facilitate a conversation about mental health that goes in depth about what students are really experiencing and try to shatter the stigma surrounding mental health.

Sammi Boas: Just to give you a brief heads up, this episode contains material that may be triggering to some listeners, particularly surrounding experiences with mental illness. While we’d love to have you listen, put your own mental health and wellbeing first.

Haley Fuller: A hot topic of conversation, particularly during Wildcat Welcome was the True Northwestern Dialogue, or TND, about mental health and wellbeing. According to returning students and their Peer Advisers, the format had been changed from previous years from a part-presentation/part-play hybrid to a PowerPoint presentation. Some students found it controversial because a lot of complex topics, such as symptoms of mental illnesses, weren’t mentioned, and sleep and meditation were given as universal solutions to dealing with stress. While important, they aren’t feasible solutions for everyone, particularly for people who do have mental illnesses. We spoke to freshmen John McDermott and Gretchen Faliszek to hear what they thought about the controversial TND.

John McDermott: I’m John McDermott, I’m an 18-year-old freshman majoring in Religious Studies.

Gretchen Faliszek: I’m Gretchen Faliszek. I’m Class of 2023 and I’m majoring in statistics.

Sammi Boas: What were your specific thoughts regarding that mental health TND?

John McDermott: For a lot of people, it just felt like another talk about mental health, very standard to what people have heard in the past, and I think sensitized to an extent that people were a bit uncomfortable with. On the flipside, the small group conversations went well for a lot of people, and I think that at the very least, people appreciated having the space to get more into the nitty-gritty, into the personal stuff, and being able to talk about more personal issues that might’ve been overlooked in the presentation. Of course it is a presentation and there are things they’re going to miss, that’s a given but I still think it could’ve been said better.

Gretchen Faliszek: It’s good that the school is trying to talk about mental health, but I think they went about it in the wrong way. I feel like the TND wasn’t made for people with actual mental illness. I feel like it was made for people who just get casual test anxiety. I’ve been diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety, and panic disorder and I was officially diagnosed [in] I think 8th grade. I’ve had my fair share of self-harm and attempts and all that stuff and I feel like the mental health TND didn’t really address any of those things or the more serious stuff. It was just made for “Here’s what to do if you’re stressed about a test” like “wear different socks and you’ll feel fine.” I don’t want to say they’re not real issues because they are but he didn’t address the actual elephant in the room. He didn’t really address suicide. I feel like it was made for people who don’t have mental illness.

Haley Fuller: Part of the presentation included tips about how to feel better in the moment when you’re feeling nervous, including exercise, getting enough sleep, and changing into a different pair of socks. However, as Gretchen said, some of the ways were simpler than the way mental illness actually works.