Ariana Gibson, CEO and founder of STIGMA, joins Cheddar News to talk about how the web-based application is helping people talk about mental health. 

Between Bells

How 'STIGMA' is Revolutionizing the Mental Health Space 

Welcome back to Between Bells One company is looking to revolutionize the mental health services space stigma is a mental health content provider that houses a community for people to share messages of hope. The company doesn't provide licensed counseling services but instead serves as a platform for video messages aimed at crowdsourcing hope and love joining us now is Ariana Gibson Ceo and founder of stigma. Thank you so much for joining us. This is such a cool concept and I think so needed right now. So can you walk us through how the company is de stigmatizing mental health by creating a place of human connection through videos? Yeah, so I had a background as a filmmaker and I shot a documentary that got really great feedback and prove to me that people really wanted to connect with others who shared their lived experiences. But what I felt like I was seeing in the market was a lot of people who were solving the problem of making therapy better or making the experience better for people who had already raised their hands to say I need help. I wanted to create a place that would attract the people who were maybe struggling in silence um that hadn't yet sought support and I wanted to give them living proof that they weren't alone by showing them examples of stories of people speaking openly and with confidence and without shame about what it's like to live with misunderstood conditions. So at the heart of it, we use storytelling um to normalize these conversations about mental health. I love the inspiration behind this platform and also that you use your strengths in storytelling to make it happen. We know that people can watch these videos when they're feeling anxious or depressed. Tell us about some of the videos that people are watching right now. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's a mixed bag. So we are on Tiktok and that's what sort of where we get a lot of our members, our members come about 20% of our membership comes from Tiktok and we can see the content that people are really engaging with. So often it's people saying, um, in the comments, I've never heard it explained this way or thank you for giving me the language and vocabulary to use to help people understand what it's like to live with complex PTSD. Um, others have said, you know, O. C. D. Is always represented as people washing their hands too much and the way you described a fear of being late or a fear of not being on time. That's exactly me. And so I think people feeling validated and seeing matters a lot and then it kind of depends on the subject matter. So for things that are really not talked about a lot like Child sexual abuse is a category on our platform. We find that when people ask for hope about categories of lived experiences that are really not talked about, they often say, I only want messages of hope from people who share this lived experience, but overall over 80% of our members actually say I'll take a message of hope from anyone And 70% of your respondents on the platform feel like they don't have anyone to talk to about their mental health, which I think is just so interesting because we're in a time when we're so connected online, we can call someone so easily or text someone so easily, it's the name of your company. Why do you think we have so much trouble. when it comes to discussing these problems or issues that were going through? I think like anything hard, most humans want a model. They want to watch someone do something hard and say, okay, that that's a way to do it or I won't be alone in doing this. And so I think until we start creating more spaces for people to practice asking for health to practice talking about their mental health in an environment that is empathetic and understanding, it's going to be challenging for people, you know, the world says, let's normalize these conversations about mental health and we celebrate the celebrities who bring it up and I'm so proud of every celebrity that does and grateful to them for keeping the conversation going. But you have to create the spaces for people who are living in smaller towns where stuff isn't talked about are living an experience that they think no one understands to feel safe saying this is how I feel and it's it's not always great, but sometimes it is because that's the human lived experiences, good days and bad and we're able to support people no matter which one you're having. Yeah, I really appreciate that perspective of people needing a model. So being that model yourself and starting this platform, how do you use stigma to have a healthier relationship with your mental health and your mental space? I think I've never felt stronger pressure as I do now to take care of my mental health. So, people think of mental health and they think it's synonymous with mental illness and it's not mental health is just our emotional health, our social well being, our psychological well being and a lot of things outside of a mental illness diagnosis can affect that. So, um losing a job, having a child with a disability, having a miscarriage, there's so many life events that actually will affect our mental health and we need to be able to talk about them. But it is still very hard even for me. I recently got to do a pitch competition and the short version of a long story is that I live with anxiety and panic attacks and I went to therapy the day before I told my therapist, I think I'm gonna have a panic attack on stage, I did, But I labeled it, I said it out loud and then I posted about it on social and that post got 25,000 impressions in 24 hours, which just goes to show that people are celebrating when we're brave enough to be open about it. So I'm trying to lead by example where I can, wow, that is incredible. And I also suffer from panic attacks and have posted about them myself. So I just want to say I'm here for you and I'm so proud of you and everything that you've accomplished with stigma so far. Looking forward to seeing how you expand in the future. That's Ariana Gibson Ceo and founder of stigma. Thanks so much for joining us.