Mental health advocate Mitch Wallis reveals breakdown
The founder of the Heart on My Sleeve campaign shares how COVID-19 brought him to his knees and how he’s now back on top
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At first glance Mitch Wallis’ Instagram account is like so many others: a digital album filled with happy snaps showcasing a beautiful young person living their best life.
There’s swags of pics of 30-year-old Mitch, all chiselled cheekbones, tousled blonde locks and astonishingly blue eyes.
There’s shots of him partying with his beautiful friends. Pics of him soaking up the rays on golden sand, shirt unbuttoned, tattoos on display. There’s gorgeous women, six-pack abs and adorable puppies too. In every single post he looks like the perfect blend of movie star and rock god.
But look a little closer and you’ll discover something surprising.
Yes, he has a perfectly square jaw and a neatly-placed dimple, but Mitch is neither fashion model nor ‘influencer’. He is in fact a highly-qualified mental health advocate and a deeply passionate one at that.
And sure – those carefully-curated social media posts might be aesthetically pleasing, but they also come with a strong and powerful message which Mitch never deviates from. And that message is this – appearances mean very little – it’s what’s going on inside that counts.
Talk to him for even a moment or two and you’ll very quickly realise this young man is on a mission to spread that concept far and wide. And he’s even more determined to do so now with the whole world dealing with COVID-19 and mental burden it’s brought with it.
“My purpose in life is to help people,” says Mitch firmly.
“My whole purpose in life …
“I want for everyone to live and connect more authentically … And I believe for that to happen successfully you have to be genuinely honest about what you’re feeling and thinking. We all need to be more honest. It’s the only way. Especially right now.”
Mitch, who has a Masters Degree in Psychology from Columbia University, New York (told you he’s not just a pretty face), heads up the mental health initiative Heart On My Sleeve. The initiative, nicknamed HOMS, is a global movement which kicked off after Mitch shared a video to Facebook revealing that while his life looked like heaven from the outside, it was, in reality, anything but. He was battling significant depression and anxiety.
The program now has a services arm, which delivers mental health programs to corporate groups and also individuals via social media including Facebook and yes, that Instagram account. Soon it will expand to provide online training programs to those wanting to develop their own resilience and also support others suffering with mental health issues.
But back to that beautiful Instagram account.
Yes, Mitch posts often, but unlike the vast majority who share heavily edited perfection only, he is all about keeping it real.
Accordingly, when he hit an emotional wall a month or so back, he let his 10K+ followers know, even going so far as to share a stark self portrait, eyes were filled with tears, his face crumpled with emotion.
This was no Instagram perfection model moment, but Mitch held nothing back.
“I recently hit rock bottom,” he posted alongside the raw image.
“A place I didn’t think I would go back to. It was tough. Very painful and for a number of reasons. And also humbling.”
Mitch explained that despite taking regular medication, having an excellent support network including a talented therapist and loving friends and family, he had worked himself to the bone in his bid to expand Heart On My Sleeve and accordingly suffered a breakdown of sorts.
He shared this deeply personal information not for attention or pity, but so that his followers might feel less alone when and if they struggle with their own mental health issues.
“I have all the resources, training and skills – and I can still get hit this hard,” he wrote, adding, “Man it has been tough.”
The post quickly went viral with hundreds of followers thanking Mitch for his gutsy honesty.
“You are inspirational, strong and courageous and I applaud you,” wrote one.
“You’re helping others more than you know,” posted another.
“Thanks for being so brave and courageous for sharing this,” shared another.
The comments were seen by Mitch’s mother Gina Willard.
“There were people saying how grateful they were to him and how much they appreciated everything he does. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud …
“Some of the things he shares and puts out about his own life … there are people out there who really need to see it, to hear it. He is changing lives.”
The post itself confirmed Gina had been oh so right when several weeks earlier she told her son he was skating close to the edge emotionally.
Mitch had no indicated he was struggling, but Gina felt in her gut that something was wrong.
“Call it a mother’s intuition,” she says carefully.
“He had been working himself into the ground establishing HOMS and taking on more and more … COVID struck and he was stuck in his apartment and we were talking on the phone and I just felt it. I knew … I knew I had to go and see him.”
Gina drove to Mitch’s apartment immediately and what she found shocked her.
Her obsessively tidy son’s home was overflowing with garbage. There were dirty dishes piled in the sink, his bed was unmade. Mitch himself was on the phone, frantically pacing the small space.
Gina waited for her boy to hang up the phone and then wrapped him in her arms.
“He burst into tears immediately,” she says.
“So I cleaned the apartment. Took the garbage out, washed the dishes. Then I had him get his things and took him home.”
Mitch spent the following weeks recovering under the eye of his loving mother and, as is his MO, shared his struggles to that Instagram account. And his followers, friends really, sent him as much love and support as possible.
The comments touched Mitch and also strengthened his resolve to be upfront about his personal demons.
He might be the founder of a successful international mental health initiative, but he is determined to let others know he has first-hand experience with tricky mental health conditions and accordingly, really does know exactly what they are going through.
He shares his stories without shame and loves it when others do the same or even if they simply post a quick comment.
“Responses make me realise how important it is that we be upfront and honest about our own difficulties with mental health,” he says.
“So many of us are struggling and if we are honest about that fact … well, it can only help.”
There’s no denying many of us are battling tricky mental health issues here in Australia. According to statistics provided by the mental health initiative Beyond Blue, one in seven Australians will experience depression in their lifetime, while a full 25 per cent of us will experience an anxiety condition.
Beyond Blue also reports that one in eight Australians is currently experiencing high or very high mental distress. Of course, the recent pandemic has worsened that scenario. A CSIRO survey of 4090 Australians revealed that roughly two thirds of us have reduced the amount of time we are spending exercising since COVID-19 and close to 60 per cent of us are ‘less happy with life’. The same survey found that 41 per cent of us feel our mental wellbeing has been impacted.
Mitch is not surprised. Indeed, if anything he feels the numbers of those in distress are likely to be higher – possibly much higher.
“The vast majority of us are struggling to cope emotionally with COVID-19,” he says.
And that struggle makes perfect sense, he adds.
“Humans on the whole are incredibly social – having supportive relationships is arguably the strongest coping tool we have,” he explains.
“COVID-19 has seen us unable to socialise. Suddenly it’s like the white noise is gone. It’s as though there’s no radio, no TV, no chatter, or it feels that way anyway … because we can’t be around the people we love and enjoy.
“That’s incredibly difficult.”
Mitch goes on to explain the struggle is intensified because it’s during periods of stress that human beings turn to others. But COVID restrictions mean many of us no longer have this option.
This has resulted in a wave of anxiety and depression sweeping the community.
We are also experiencing increased levels of irritability, volatility and disconnection from one another and, the world at large, says Mitch.
There’s less motivation when it comes to our work and increased scepticism and pessimism too.
But, and this is a big but, there’s a positive side to this scenario too, he adds.
“I genuinely believe the world is not f*&%#d – not even now,” he says bluntly.
“It’s possible, that in some ways, this may even be the crisis that we needed.”
Clearly Mitch doesn’t mean to suggest a pandemic is ideal.
He’s aware that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and that whole communities have been devastated.
But, he does believe there are positives in our current scenario and that we can find them if we try.
“This year is forcing us to look at ourselves … to slow down and stop being so distracted and too busy to ignore the questions that we have suppressed for such a long time,” he says.
“Thoughts and feelings are coming to the surface for many of us and we need to let them.
“In this current environment we have the time and the stillness to look at ourselves and fully consider questions such ‘Who am I’ and ‘What do I want in life’.”
Mitch suggests that if we are struggling with these questions, or life in general, that we remind ourselves that we are not alone in our distress.
“None of us is going through this solo,” he points out.
“I think it’s the first time – one of the only times in history in fact – when we have been so united in our suffering. It can help to remind ourselves that we are all in this together.”
Heart On My Sleeve kicked off in 2017 when founder Mitch Wallis shared a video on Facebook, describing his immense battles with anxiety and depression.
People the world over started tattooing hearts on their arm and sharing their own stories. HOMS is now a full services organisation, working with a community base across the globe, and delivering services to large corporates like Microsoft, American Express, KPMG and more.