Ross Szabo talks go students about the importance of mental health. Photo by Dylan Dagnan for The Alabamian.

On the evening of September 17, Active Minds, a campus organization, hosted the presentation Behind Happy Faces (BHF) to promote awareness and diminish negative connotations about mental health .

Ross Szabo, speaker of BHF, has shared his personal struggles, mishaps and triumphs with bipolar disorder to over a million people.

The purpose of this presentation was to approach the societal issues mental health has. Szabo addressed these in a lighthearted manner but also left the audience with a sense of how serious the issue is. He said the most important aspect of the presentation was “Mental health is for everyone.” He explained that the ways one choses to deal with the challenges are called coping mechanisms.

Szabo also emphasized sleep’s effect on good mental health. He said sleep is a key item which goes hand in hand with mental health. He said militias’ most useful interrogation tactic is to allow the person in question to obtain three to five hours of sleep because it mentally wears them down. In comparison, the average college student obtains four to six hours of sleep a night.

Szabo said counseling is a great resource to equip oneself with the tools to deal and cope with challenges in a healthy way.

“Behind Happy Faces” is also the title of the book Szabo wrote which goes into more detail.

Anyone interested in joining Active Minds can attend their next meeting on September 28 in Comer room 205 at 7:00 p.m.