(L-R) Actress Torrey DeVitto, Actress Rachel McCord, Vice President, Global PR, Social Media and Charity at philosophy Tiffani Carter-Thompson, Blogger Jamie Stone and National Director of Communications at NAMI Katrina Gay attend the Hope and Grace Luncheon with NAMI And Philosophy For Mental Health awareness month
LOS ANGELES, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 5/30/2016 – “Ten years ago, there was a story on the NBC show, West Wing, that I thought really summarized the true spirit of NAMI and who we are and it goes like this,” says Director of Communications for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Katrina Gay.
National Director of Communications at NAMI Katrina Gay
“This guy is walking down the street when he falls into a hole. The walls were so steep that he couldn’t get out. A doctor passed by and the guy shouts, ‘Hey you! Can you help me? I need to get out.’ And the doctor wrote a prescription, threw it down the hole and moved on. Not that that prescription may not have been helpful, but the guy is still stuck in the hole. Then a priest came along and the guy shouts out, ‘Father I’m down in this hole. Can you help me get out?” The priest wrote out a prayer and threw it down in the hole and moved on. Not that a prayer can’t be helpful too. Then a friend walks by and the guy shouts out, ‘Hey Joe, I’m really stuck in this dark hole. Can you help me get out?’ And Joe jumped down into the hole and the guy says, ‘What are you doing? Now we’re both down here.’ And the friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.’ That is the essence of NAMI.”
Gay was among the activists, celebrities and other acclaimed speakers, who addressed attendees at the second annual Hope & Grace luncheon. The luncheon, sponsored by NAMI and the Philosophy hope & grace initiative, was held at Esterel Restaurant at the Sofitel Hotel on May 19th. NAMI teamed up with the wellbeing skincare line to work towards erasing the stigma surrounding mental health issues, issues that affect women at a disproportionate rate compared to men. NAMI has a network of over 900 local affiliates throughout the US that provide help and support to people with mental health conditions free of charge.
Statistics highlighted at the luncheon included those stating that one in every four women struggles with mental health issues and that approximately 12 million women in the US experience clinical depression. Accordingly, Philosophy through their hope & grace initiative launched back in 2014, donates 1% of US net sales to supporting community-based organizations working to help women facing the challenge of mental health issues.
In the spirit of fighting the stigma that surrounds this sensitive topic, a number of high profile speakers stepped forward to share their own personal experiences dealing with mental health issues. They did so with elements of courage and grace in the hopes of helping someone else who might feel overwhelmed in their personal struggles. Here, in part, is what they had to say:
Actress Rachel McCord
Rachel McCord actress and creator of the beauty and lifestyle site The McCord List
“Mental illness affects so many of us and yet there’s still a stigma that keeps us stuck. What many of you don’t know is I was one of the 12,000,000. I quietly suffered from depression since I was 13 years old. I read every self-help book I could find but nothing helped. Many days were hard to get out of bed and at times I felt like giving up. A couple times I came close to doing so. But something changed.”
“ I stand before you today as someone who got a second chance. Someone’s grace gave me hope. I now dedicate my life to helping women and girls around the world live and feel worthy of a fabulous life. I don’t take my life for granted and when we choose to support another person in their journey of healing, we inspire them to go on and help someone else.”
Actress Torrey DeVitto
Torrey DeVitto actress, Chicago Med, Pretty Little Liars
“Thank you. I am so honored to be here today and so honored to be able to partner with Hope and Grace to bring awareness to the mental health issues that women face.”
“I know because as you saw, I have anxiety myself. I know what it feels like to be stuck and terrified, to feel let down and betrayed by your own body, by the pounding of your heart and the pit in your stomach and the shaking of your hands. I know how alienating anxiety can be and in a country where one in five are affected by mental illness, it’s really time that we all start treating mental illness the way that we treat physical illness and to start seeing that not all pain can be seen. So I stand with Philosophy, the Hope and Grace Initiative and the National Alliance on Mental Illness to pledge to be ‘stigma free” and I hope you all do too. Thank you.”
Waging a constant battle against mental and emotional suffering doesn’t always come with a guarantee of success. Jamie Stone gave a heart wrenching account of her sister Melissa’s struggle with bi-polar disorder. Weeping at times during her speech, Stone nonetheless eloquently shed light on the barriers and frustrations families often face when trying to save a loved one.
Jamie Stone
Jamie Stone founder of beauty/fashion and lifestyle site, Honestly Jaime
“Mental illness has affected my family for years. It was only recently about a year ago when my sister, Melissa was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She passed away on April 20…so it’s kind of fresh.”
“We tried really hard to help my sister. My parents did everything. We tried to bribe her. We tried to beg her to get help and she just…it’s not that she didn’t accept it I think the stigma really affected her and it was too much for her, she was embarrassed. So when NAMI asked me to speak today I was hesitant but I just felt that it was important for me to be here and share her story.”
“Melissa, she overdosed on Percocet, because she was self-medicating herself. It was an accident. She didn’t need to die. And I really believe that if the stigma was even a little bit less than what it is now then she maybe would have accepted the help that we tried to give her. I just think that everything that NAMI’S doing and Philosophy is just so important because nobody should have to be miserable throughout their life.”
“My sister was a really unhappy person. She would have these terrible mood swings where one minute she would be fine, the next minute she would just sleep for twelve days. My parents tried to institutionalize her twice and as you probably know, if you’re over eighteen they can’t force you to stay in a hospital unless you’re suicidal or homicidal which she wasn’t, so she would get back on her meds and do really well for a week or two and then go right back to the way it was.”
“You know, as a family member it’s just so hard because you want to help them but when somebody doesn’t want help, there’s nothing you can really do. And I don’t want anybody else to have to go through what my family has gone through. And I also want everybody to spread the word and she would be really proud of you right now.”
Vice President, Global PR, Social Media and Charity at philosophy Tiffani Carter-Thompson
With so much genuine feeling and support aimed at people dealing with mental health issues, it was also important to know more about the specifics within the Hope & Grace Initiative’s. For instance, how exactly are finances allocated to help those who need it the most? Vice President of Public Relations, Social Media and Charity for Philosophy, Tiffani Carter-Thompson, addressed those questions and revealed even more troubling statistics on the status of mental health worldwide and in the US.
“Through the hope & grace initiative, Philosophy is the first company to place a deep focus on mental health. The statistics are really just incredible that one in five Americans is affected by mental health in a given year and depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. That in itself is staggering.”
“At its core, the Hope and Grace initiative is an unprecedented unending commitment to support mental health by donating one percent of Philosophy’s US net sales to the Hope and Grace fund. Through the fund, we donate critically needed grants to organizations serving the need of women’s mental health issues.”
“We are pleased to announce that with the selection of our spring 2016 grant recipient this month, the Hope and Grace fund has granted nearly 1.8 million dollars to 29 mental health organizations across the United States. Earlier this month, the fund for the second year in a row granted $75,000 to the National Alliance of Mental Illness to support their Stigma Free program, which is why we are all here today. Also within the past year, the Hope and Grace Initiative has supported mental health research at Columbia University, we lit the Empire State building twice, that’s the color of mental health, and we also launched the hopeandgracecommunity.com which is a site that serves as a community destination for mental health stories and education.”
Carter-Thompson also unveiled a PSA that was a collaboration with Torey DeVitto and which can be seen here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rTPNoYdDM
During her closing remarks at the Hope & Grace luncheon Rachel McCord observed, “It’s really beautiful when you dedicate your life to breaking a stigma so that people can stand up and get the help they need so they don’t have to self-medicate. It’s really important. And whether you realize it or not, we all know someone; one friend, niece, sister, mother, daughter, one who may be one of the five women struggling with mental health issues.”
Torrey DeVitto attends the Hope and Grace Luncheon with NAMI And Philosophy For Mental Health awareness month at Sofitel Hotel on May 19
We couldn’t pass up the chance to talk one on one with Torrey DeVitto and discover more about her commitment to this cause.
What has been your biggest motivation for coming forward and addressing the issue of mental health?
A lot of people in my family have anxiety and depression so to me there’s never been a stigma in my household with it. I don’t feel any shame at all about coming forward and I understand because of the stigmas out there why some people would, but to me I feel confident and I don’t care what anybody thinks. Yes, I have anxiety, but that does not take away from my power as a woman or my power in this business. To be able to stand in that and speak about this, I think is really important. There shouldn’t be a stigma around it. Especially these days when we’re in such high paced energy. No matter where you live it’s hard to disconnect and get away. That causes stress alone.
One of my stressors is when you go to the grocery store; I mean the amount of options that we have these days! It’ s just not natural. So to not speak about it is just silly at this point because to bottle it up is just going to make it worse.
What has been your experience in dealing with stress in the past and how do you deal with stress now?
To be honest with you I was put on Lexapro once. It wasn’t for me. As an actor I felt like I was nervous and that it would limit me as far as accessing emotions but I understand that people have to do what they have to do. I’m not saying good or bad about anything just for me personally, it wasn’t right. I meditate and I have a good support system and I journal so I know now, I’m familiar with it enough to know that when the wave is coming, I just need to get my surfboard out and ride it.
Do you feel like that at this point in time, we’ve made progress in terms of not thinking that there’s as big a stigma as before?
I do. I think it’s great to even come this far because we’re all talking about it now and that unto itself is huge and really important.
For more information on NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and the hope & grace initiative please visit their websites.
Cover photo of Torrey DeVitto, Rachel McCord and Jamie Stone as well as all other photography courtesy of Araya Diaz/Getty Images
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