{"id":990081,"date":"2026-05-28T11:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/990081\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T11:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:33:19","slug":"a-new-way-of-normalizing-conversations-about-mental-health-create-videos-w-video-alexandria-echo-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/990081\/","title":{"rendered":"A new way of normalizing conversations about mental health – create videos. (W\/VIDEO) – Alexandria Echo Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALEXANDRIA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Becky Schmitz wants to normalize talking about mental health.<\/p>\n

And by mental health, the executive director of <\/p>\n

Vikingland Community Support Program<\/a><\/p>\n

doesn\u2019t mean some \u201ccondition\u201d with a diagnosis and a fancy write-up in the <\/p>\n

DSM-5<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all feel a certain way 100 different times throughout the day. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s your \u2018mental health\u2019 all the time, right?\u201d she asks. \u201cThese are life problems or situational things and stressors, and that’s what I think is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n

And by normalize, she means hanging with that friend whose goofy sense of humor makes serious topics easier to talk about.<\/p>\n

\"20260522<\/p>\n

Carmen Hudson (on the floor) and Becky Schmitz address those days when you just need to take a vacation. <\/p>\n

Facebook<\/p>\n

Folks who\u2019ve stumbled across Vikingland Community Support Program\u2019s <\/p>\n

Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n

have been enjoying Schmitz\u2019s short videos on the social media platform for about six years now, ever since COVID shut them down for a while in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, we didn’t know for how long,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were only shut down for two weeks, [but] it felt like a long time. We provide community-based mental health supports, so when we got taken out of people’s homes, we were like, \u2018OK, how do we help people stay connected?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But even after the shutdown ended, Schmitz saw an opportunity to reach out to more people in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to have a familiar face. I want to keep talking about skills. I want them to feel comfortable in some way,\u201d she says. \u201cHopefully, if they can see me every day, that helps ease some of the anxiety behind what’s going on in the world and the uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Copy<\/p>\n

Carmen Hudson gets back to work at the Vikingland Community Support Program, after Becky Schmitz agrees to provide background music.<\/p>\n

Facebook<\/p>\n

But the social media reels are also just \u2026entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first they kind of started out just funny,\u201d says Schmitz. \u201cI tried to keep them lighthearted. I did jokes, and I would find some little things on the internet to to review and then, as I felt more and more comfortable, it just kind of progressed into talking about coping skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it’s really progressed from there, not just for Vikingland, but in my own personal life. Once I started doing these videos, I was asked to start writing for a blog, called <\/p>\n

Healthieyoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

. At first I was like, \u2018I am not a writer; never wanted to be a writer\u2019, but it sounded like some way to occupy my time, at the very least. So on my own personal time, that’s when I started to develop the <\/p>\n

mental health toolbox<\/a><\/p>\n

. When you listen to a lot of my videos. I talk a lot about tools. I’ll talk about the hammer and the screwdriver and the saw. And so over the past five years now, I actually got it trademarked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmitz says the experience has been transformative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been writing about the mental health toolbox and traveling and public speaking. So these videos not only continue to be important in our community and through Vikingland, but have really transformed my own personal life and the work that I do with others all over Minnesota. I’ve been to Wisconsin, North Dakota. I’ve really gotten to travel and talk about mental health with as many people as I could possibly reach. So it’s been quite the experience, to say the very least. And, I’m just grateful, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, Schmitz has had no trouble enlisting help for her videos from her traditionally shy, reticent, west-central-Minnesota co-workers. She hasn\u2019t had to pull rank or even strong-arm staff into joining her.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Carmen Hudson gets extremely sassy in one of Vikingland Community Support Programs short reels.<\/p>\n

Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I’m going to be truly honest with you, it’s sort of the other way around. I mean, it’s not that I’m not animated and that I don’t love videos – at first I was sort of like, \u2018Nobody’s going to care. Nobody’s going to care and we’re just going to look silly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But Schmitz says coworker Carmen Hudson became \u201cthe encourager\u201d behind the short videos. \u201cIt’s one of the main reasons why I feel [the funny videos] are important.\u201d Schmitz says sometimes it\u2019s hard for people to learn mental health skills, reach out to services, come to the drop-in center.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I want to normalize who we are as people, and I want to normalize this space,\u201d she says. \u201cSo in the event that somebody needs help, maybe they saw that and they say, \u2018Well, you know, Becky, she seems pretty laid back and funny. I don’t think I would have a problem going to talk to her.\u2019 So it’s been a way for us to break down walls \u2014 if people felt anxious or uncomfortable coming here, just making it look like an atmosphere that was inviting \u2014 just hopefully normalizing us as people and being kind of silly so they feel comfortable to walk through the door and get the help that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s working. \u201cI know for a fact that we’ve had people reach out to us because they’ve seen the videos. They feel like they know us and that we’re familiar to them,\u201d she says. \u201cThat’s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Schmitz says she hopes that the videos, beyond people who are referred to them, can reach folks who might want help but don\u2019t know where to start or even what resources might be available.<\/p>\n

Schmitz says her video topics are grounded in things that are important to her or the people around her. \u201cEvery single thing that I talk about either comes from something that I’m feeling in life or something that maybe I’ve heard my staff talk about, or maybe my clients have talked about. They all come from something that somebody said that really stuck in my brain and I feel compelled to talk about further.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning’s topic truly was from my own personal feelings,\u201d she says, referring to a reel she posted on May 19. \u201cI just felt like I’ve been so stressed out and overwhelmed lately that I’ve been wishing my days away, and shame on me because I should be grateful for every day I get. It’s a gift, and I know that. But it’s hard when we get into that mindset of survival mode. Most videos, especially when I’m out walking, I’ll just simply say, \u2018I’m going to be on my soapbox today, and here’s what I’m going to talk about.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI always have to talk about something that I’m feeling passionate about in that moment. It allows me to talk more freely. I feel like my best videos are videos that really come from a place of wanting to address [something] in that moment because it’s either bothering me or I’ve heard it from people around me. And I think that we all need to talk about it. I’m an analyzer. I analyze stuff to the max, and so I just think it’s good that we just talk about this out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the things Schmitz absolutely does not want to do, though, is be detached, or sound like a lecturer. And while she knows that there are many serious mental health disorders out there, most people\u2019s mental health issues are about more run-of-the-mill stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to normalize it,\u201d she says. “I don’t want to categorize every life situation. These are life problems, or situational things, and stressors. So what do we do about it? Rather than allowing it to consume us, which could turn into more issues leading to some mental health concerns, let’s just deem it as a problem right now that we’re going to work through before we allow it to get to a place that’s more difficult to manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to normalize things so that we can talk more about how you’re feeling. You’re just kind of down \u2014 \u2018Oh, what’s going on? Let’s talk through that. Let’s come up with a plan. Is there something going on?\u2019 I always wanted my videos to be \u2018let’s just talk and have a conversation. And I’m going to tell you what I think.\u2019 And, you know, be respectful. I think that’s what makes them more relatable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I feel upon being given a diagnosis, people make that their identity. If you’re a diabetic, you don’t walk around saying, \u2018I’m a diabetic.\u2019 I mean, you might let people know that information just in case something were to happen, but it doesn’t make<\/b> you who you are \u2014 it\u2019s a part<\/b> of who you are.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so my thing with the videos is that you are not bipolar, you are not depression. You are you. These are a part of you. But let’s talk about what other things are happening and what we can work through that might ease some of those things or make your life happier or easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALEXANDRIA \u2014 Becky Schmitz wants to normalize talking about mental health. And by mental health, the executive director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":990082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4317],"tags":[154199,275086,217260,275087,105,218,8697,16,15,275088],"class_list":["post-990081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-alexandria","tag-alexandria-echo-press","tag-douglas-county","tag-echo-press","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-minnesota","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vikingland-community-support-program"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116651991387052282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}