Bethany Darr calls her Instagram usage a “shout into the void,” as a means to de-stigmatize mental illness and recognize that it is OK to seek help.

Darr, senior in psychology, advocates for mental illness awareness on her Instagram page. Darr lives with generalized anxiety, depression and is recovering from an eating disorder.

She shares on her Instagram page once or twice a day photos that exemplify positivity, growth and encouragement. However, she didn’t always have such a healthy relationship with the social media platform.

“I post for myself, but I think it makes other people feel better,” said Darr.

When first coming to Iowa State, Darr, like many freshmen, wanted to make the most of her four years in college. To do so, she spent the summer beforehand seeking help for her own struggles with mental illness.

Yet, recovery for Darr is constant.

“Recovery is hard work and part of recovery is taking it as it comes,” Darr said. 

Darr’s recovery specifically deals with utilizing healthy coping mechanisms to suppress her anxiety. However, for a long time her coping mechanism was also an eating disorder.

“My coping mechanism to my anxiety is dieting to control the anxiety,” Darr said.

The difficulty Darr had with social media is the reason why she began posting her advocacy on mental illness.

“The thing that started the dieting habits was wanting to lose weight and following many fitness accounts, but then those people had come out admitting their own eating disorders,” Darr said. 

In addition to her social media activism, Darr also wears a lime-green bandana tied around her backpack as a flag for people who may be struggling that she is “a safe individual to approach with mental health-related issues, that they know where resources are, and that they hold a few resource cards,” according to the Bandana Project through the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI.

“Mental illness runs rampant and it’s important to speak up when you or someone you know is struggling,” Darr said.