ABOUT I'VE GOT YOU
WE WANT EVERYONE WHO IS STRUGGLING TO HAVE SOMEONE SAY “I’VE GOT YOU!”
I've Got You is creating widespread awareness of the signs of mental health disorders so we can RECOGNIZE and RESPOND with COMPASSION. Stigma cannot survive compassion!
The I’ve Got You Project is the result of my myriad experiences dealing with my own and others’ challenges with mental health throughout my life. These experiences compelled me to create a place where everyone can go to get detailed information they need to help them know if someone is struggling and learn how to help. It is a place where those who need help can go for validation, information, and resources.
Though there are many sites with information about mental health disorders, generally, the descriptions of signs of those disorders are quite general and suggestions for how to help are generic. Here at I’ve Got You, I’ve provided hundreds of specific signs (what others can see) or symptoms (what people experience) as well as suggestions for helping. I did this because, despite the presence of other sites, organizations, and projects, millions of people each year are failing to be identified as having mental health problems or getting help. This is one of the biggest public health crises of our time.
I want you to come to I’ve Got You and see exactly what “commiting self-harm” means and looks like – AND how you might recognize someone who is trying to hide the fact that they are self-harming. I want you to be able to recognize the behaviors that mean “irritability” has crossed from having a bad day to having a mental health problem. Here, you’ll see that mental health disorders can and often do begin in young children and what the signs of problems in young children look like.
I’ve Got You wants everyone who needs help to get help.
The project’s name comes from the hundreds of responses from people who are struggling when I asked them this question: “What would you like someone to say to you if they think you may need help?” The most common response was simply, “I’ve got you.”
“I’ve got you” can means so many things to someone: I get it; I’m here for you; I won’t judge you; I’ll listen to you; I want to help.
By telling someone “I’ve got you,” he/she knows they won’t be alone!
All of us will deal with mental health challenges in our lifetime. At least half of us will experience one directly and we will all know or encounter someone else who does.
We have two ways we can respond to these challenges: we can assign blame, shame, or judgment – essentially leaving others to suffer alone and perpetuating stigm – OR we can observe the SIGNS and think “Does this person need help”?
I’ve Got You says you choose the second path – the compassionate path. You see someone behaving in ways that are confusing, frustrating, enraging, frightening, bizarre, or irrational and your FIRST RESPONSE is to wonder if that person needs help.
Your second is to offer help – to say, “I’ve got you.”
WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU HELP OTHERS!
The power of this movement cannot be overstated. We have the ability to intervene when people are vulnerable, fragile, feeling scared, alone, and overwhelmed and offer a beacon of light or even save a life.
SOMEONE NEEDS YOU RIGHT NOW.
PLEASE JOIN THE I’VE GOT YOU MOVEMENT BY DOING THE FOLLOWING:
- LEARN THE SIGNS THAT SOMEONE NEEDS HELP.
- LEARN HOW TO HELP.
ABOUT ME - Wendy S. Smith
The issue of mental health is extremely personal for me. It has impacted my entire life.
I am a mom, daughter, granddaughter, aunt, friend, colleague, and neighbor to those who have experienced serious mental health challenges. I have struggled with anxiety my entire life and have had periods in my life when anxiety was disabling.
I lost my brother, who had severe obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia, to suicide when he was 29 years old. My nephew died by suicide when he was 32. I have also lost friends and neighbors and nearly lost so many others.
As a result, I am on a mission to help us identify everyone who is suffering from a mental health disorder beginning in very early childhood through the lifespan and getting them help that offers relief and hope. Mental illness is a treatable physiological condition. Especially when identified and treated early, these disorders can be managed and even cured. By RECOGNIZING and RESPONDING to mental health challenges in ourselves and others, we can maximize life outcomes and minimize the worst effects of long-term untreated illness.
I am a professional author and researcher. Throughout my career, I have used my skills and knowledge to empower everyday citizens to both achieve their potential and help improve the world. I have a Master of Science degree in child development.
Since the death by suicide of my brother 25 years ago, I have dedicated myself to learning about mental health and disorders. I sat on the board of my local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), worked with the University of Chicago Mental Health Summit, and have been certified in Mental Health First Aid. I have used psychiatry and psychotherapy throughout my adult life to manage my own anxiety disorder and have helped countless others get help for struggles of their own or someone they care about. The information provided here is based on scientific research and culled from many resources including hundreds of conversations with people experiencing disorders and those who love them.
In 2017, I gave a Tedx Talk about introducing mental health literacy into the curriculum of our elementary schools so that children would learn that their brains control how they think, feel, and act in addition to controlling many other systems in their bodies. I believe children should know that their brains can get sick just like other parts of their bodies, that they should know how to recognize when this is happening, and they should have language to talk about it.
I described a school environment in which children, parents, teachers, and other school staff form a community of compassion when one child’s thoughts, feelings, or actions are strange, frustrating unmanageable, harmful, or scary.
In our schools and everywhere, people should FIRST wonder
“Does he/she need help?” rather than first assigning blame, shame, or judgment.
In 2009, my best-selling book on everyday philanthropy, “Give a Little: How Your Affordable Donations Can Transform The World,” was published.
Before that, I worked in the nonprofit sector for nearly 20 years – all of that time in programs serving children at risk of failing in school and in life. I was both a program director and fundraiser.
I’m also a mom to 24-year-old identical twin daughters. I am proud to say they’ve both chosen to work in fields that help children’s long-term outcomes and opportunities: one as an elementary/special education teacher and the other as a pediatric occupational therapist. Both have used I’ve Got You strategies for recognizing and responding to friends who were struggling.
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW FEEL(S) SUICIDAL, go to the emergency room, call a mental health professional who can talk to you NOW, or call the police and say you have a mental health crisis, not a criminal situation!
In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Text HOME to The Crisis Textline at 741741. They are available 24/7 in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland.
See Also: HELPING SOMEONE WHO IS SUICIDAL