What started as a simple splash has become a tidal wave of awareness. University of South Carolina’s Mental Illness Needs Discussion (MIND) club in conjunction with Active Minds, a non-profit organization for transforming mental health norms, began the viral USC #SpeakYourMIND challenge that swept through unsuspecting South.
According to Active Minds, the founder of MIND, Wade Jefferson was inspired by how powerful the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was, a movement that raised awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and “wanted to bring that same energy to mental health.” The challenge involves a bucket of ice water, nominations of three or more people to participate within 24 hours, and social media tags @uscmind, @activeminds, and Active Mind’s donation link.
Shimona Michelson, Celia Molotiu, and Olivia Roberts participated in the challenge. The day before Michelson was nominated, she had a fever of 102.8°F but woke up the next day feeling better. “I just decided to go through with it…it felt cold, wet, and shocking.”
When nominating others, Michelson chose her three closest friends, which included Roberts and Molotiu. “We kind of planned it. It was like ‘okay, we need to do it,’ so we prepared at the same time,” Roberts said.
Roberts had never expected the USC challenge to make it to Bloomington – first seeing the challenge in Virginia on her friend’s story. “A few days later, everyone in our town’s doing it, so it’s kind of crazy to see how it moves around,” Roberts stated.
Akasha Burton saw the challenge as “more [than] a trend…know[ing] people who have struggled with [mental health]” and being an athlete.
When nominating, Burton chose “people [she] know[s who] find importance in [mental health], but also [her] friends.”
Likewise, Simon Yeley was surprised when his friend in Denver, Colorado, nominated him for the challenge. At first, Yeley was confused why the ice bucket challenge was circulating again, but then found out about the USC challenge.
“It’s supposed to promote mental health awareness,” Yeley said, “and just like the ice bucket challenge that has obviously gotten so massive, it’s just a good way to get the word out and have people thinking about [mental health], so [conversations surrounding the topic are] more normalized.”
Yeley decided to spread the challenge as far as he could to his cousins at Indiana University, Columbus, Indiana, and his girlfriend, Lyra Mejias-Dinverno, who nominated students at North.
“I knew it was coming because he had told me that he was thinking about nominating me, but I thought it was funny,” said Mejias-Dinverno. Before getting doused with ice water, Mejias-Dinverno had just played a lacrosse match, late at night. “I was really kind of really tired, but it did cool me down. I’ll say that.”
Some of the Gothic staff participated in the challenge separately and had a splash!
Kenzie Rayles felt the challenge and its mission to raise awareness for mental health, “an issue very near and dear to [her] heart, and a fun challenge to participate in.” Irene Fogleman was also excited “to be included in this sort of movement on Instagram and spread awareness about mental health.” Likewise, Sara Carmona joined in on this excitement. “I was shocked too because I saw it, and I was like, ‘oh, I’m gonna be another one of the hundreds of people at our school doing it.’ I was really excited. I wanted to do it.”
After being whacked in the head by the bucket, Carmona stated that “it was worth it.” For Fogleman, the anticipation was frightening but afterwards felt “refreshing, like [she] just jumped into a lake.”
“I really do think it is a good way to raise mental health awareness,” Rayles said, “because that shock of that ice water really is like that shock of going through a mental health struggle.“
When choosing her nominations, Rayles “chose some of [her] best friends that [she] knew would be a little ticked off.” Fogleman, on the other hand, chose friends she thought would make funny videos. Moreover, Carmona chose unsuspecting people to give an element of surprise and fun, like she had had.
Besides hilarious videos filled with shivers and screaming, the #SpeakYourMIND challenge has once again shown that a bucket of ice water and community can begin conversations and change the stigmatization of mental health.
