Colleen Coffey Speaks About Mental Health Awareness

On a Tuesday night in early March, over 400 students, faculty and staff filled the Lee Grand Dining Room of Dorrill Dining Hall almost to capacity. The woman who took the microphone was just 24 years old. As the crowd hushed, the young woman opened her mouth and said, “My name is Colleen Coffey and I am here to tell you my story.”

What happened in the next hour and a half was a time full of testimony and reflection on Coffey's mental health from the time that she was 14 years old to the present day. Colleen Coffey presents her program, “Out of the Darkness,” to hundreds of thousands of people all across the country every year. She has traveled to not only colleges, but all levels of education to speak about the importance of mental health awareness. Her goal is to break down the stigma of being “crazy” if someone is suffering from a mental disorder or illness.

She first introduced herself with a brief glimpse of her life: she was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn., graduated from Belmont University, and lives with her dog in a newly purchased house. Then the topic changed to her journey with mental health that started when she was only in the eighth grade. Coffey provided several statistics to set the mood: “An estimated 20 to 25 percent of young people are diagnosed with a mental disorder. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of treatment is effective. But, 66 percent of people who need it don’t seek help.”

Coffey said, “I know what it’s like. I’ve been anxious, preoccupied with food and exercise, angry and sad.” She has gone through and dealt with three mental disorders: anxiety, clinical depression and eating-related issues.

Her presentation included snapshots of her life from age 14 to the present day. She chronicled the 33 days that she spent in a mental hospital in eighth grade, choosing not to take her medicine as often in eleventh grade. She told of learning that her parents were divorcing her junior year of college and having a full-blown panic attack. Coffey also talked about attending graduate school at Eastern Illinois University, finding her first love, and almost committing suicide after that same guy told her she was not mentally stable to be a politician’s wife.

Kate Planow, director of the office of fraternity and sorority life, attended the presentation and made several comments. “Colleen is a presenter from CAMPUSPEAK, which is an organization that we get many of our Greek Life-related speakers from. I actually knew about Colleen and the NO Stigma campaign [prior to her coming to Longwood].”

Planow thought Coffey’s presentation was “great and really put a different spin on mental health.” Planow also said that it is good for the topic of mental health to be discussed so openly.

In addition to Coffey’s personal testimony, she also met one-on-one with several of Longwood’s Greek organization presidents for a round table discussion about mental health. Planow said she “has heard good things” about what came out of the discussion, but has “not had as much of a chance to get feedback as I would have liked.”

Planow and the other fraternity and sorority life staff invited Coffey to come to campus because “mental health is such a large topic” and “having someone focus solely on that in a ‘safe’ way is important,” Planow said. She added, “it is important for people to realize that mental health isn’t just depression and anxiety, for example, but can be you having a rough patch due to things going on in your personal life.”

Planow was enthusiastic about the program and responded that she would “definitely” invite Coffey back to Longwood in the future.

Here’s the link to the original story about Colleen Coffey and “Out of the Darkness”: http://media.www.therotundaonline.com/media/storage/paper1354/news/2009/03/04/Features/out-Of.The.Darkness.Mental.Health.Awareness-3658538.shtml