SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — The month of May is dedicated to mental health, and a teen in South Berwick is doing his part to spread awareness.
Remi Young, a 17-year-old Berwick Academy student, is sharing his own experience of struggling with mental health in hopes that others can feel comfortable doing so.
"I started it because I knew there is a stigma around mental health. People don't really like talking about it," Young said. "It's a very personal struggle, and I thought because it's helped me so much to understand that I wasn't alone ... how much could it help others? And just talking about it in our small community here at Berwick, it's really been very impactful."
Young started "Fight Your Fearz," a movement he started in his school where he talks in classes in hopes of relating to other students who also quietly struggle.
"You really need to persuade people to start talking about their own struggles. I think that's kind of what has lit a fire here in the community," Young said.
Young himself was dealing with high anxiety levels. He started doing some research and quickly found out that mental health conditions are widespread among kids and teens.
"It took a kid in a community to kind of come out about a mental health struggle, and people really started connecting with it. When I first came to Berwick, I never realized how many connections people might have to this issue," he said. "But I soon learned that most people, even in the smallest case of anxiety, deal with something. They deal with depression, anxiety, and other various mental health struggles. Everyone is dealing with something and going through something that we might not see."
Young said that through helping others with their mental health struggles, he feels a lot more at ease with his own anxiety.
"What I didn't know is that through helping other people I was also going to be helping myself," he said.
To visit Young's new Facebook page, click here.
If you are interested in ordering a shirt and supporting his cause, here is a link to his website. Young sells "Fight Your Fearz" shirts, and all the money he makes goes straight to Seacoast Mental Health Center, a nonprofit that helps people who are experiencing mental health struggles.
