John Broderick Encourages Support for Mental Health Issues

Former New Hampshire Chief Justice and mental health activist John Broderick delivered an assembly last Tuesday, speaking about stigma around mental illness and sharing his own powerful experience caring for a mentally-ill loved one.

Prior to becoming the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Broderick served as an Associate Justice of the Court. He also served as the dean and president of the University of New Hampshire’s School of Law.

Jeanne Stern—Director of Counseling and Psychological Services and adviser of Active Minds, a health and wellness club—invited Broderick to speak at PEA after hearing about his influence across the state of New Hampshire and his work with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock healthcare system.

“Active Minds is part of a chapter of a national organization whose mission is to change the conversation about mental health,” Stern said. “Mr. Broderick’s assembly contributed to this mission of changing the conversation and removing the stigma.”

“We wanted to share that there is not only one kind of [person] that talks about mental health, but a lot of people all around,” senior and co-head of Active Minds Chiara Perotti said. “We wanted to destigmatize the conversation at the school and let people know what resources are available to students and also to educate people on how they can help.”

“People must realize that there is no shame and help is available.”

During the assembly, Broderick shared stories about his son’s lifelong struggles with mental illness. Because Broderick grew up in a generation that didn’t properly acknowledge mental illness, he was unable to recognize the symptoms his son had started showing at the age of 13. As his son grew older, his mental state worsened and he turned to alcohol as a means to alleviate his pain.

Broderick viewed his son’s condition as solely a drinking addiction. “Somewhere I had failed him,” he said. “When we brought him home from rehab, he continued to drink.” After his son assaulted Broderick, leading to his highly publicized imprisonment, Broderick learned that his son was, in fact, suffering from severe depression, anxiety and panic attacks. “He felt hopeless,” Broderick continued. “He wasn’t an alcoholic, but he was mentally ill.”

After his son was diagnosed, Broderick did his best to rectify his inactions and to overcome the ordeal as a family. A few years later, he was contacted by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock foundation to join the initiative to spread awareness about mental health issues. “I think I realized that saying nothing wasn’t helpful and mental illness is much more widespread than I thought; it affects a lot of families,” he said. “Now, it is literally the most important thing I’ve done in my professional life. I would have never imagined that 10 years ago.”

Now, he has shared his message and plan over 180 times in the past 20 months at various schools and towns across New Hampshire. His ultimate goal is to change the culture surrounding mental health as a whole.

Upper and co-head of Active Minds Ursula Sze commended Broderick’s selfless intentions. “He actually doesn’t accept payments and does this purely to spread awareness,” she said.

Perotti echoed Sze’s sentiments. “Mr. Broderick is unique in that you would not expect him to be an advocate for mental health,” she said. “He’s always willing to share his story to everyone and doesn’t want anything in return.”

Students appreciated Broderick’s impactful authenticity. “The story that accompanied the message of destigmatizing mental health was very adept at capturing the audience’s attention and making the issue seem as serious as it was,” upper Jimmy Liu said.

Upper Jalen Thomas shared Liu’s sentiments. “I felt like [the assembly] was interesting because [mental health] is something we don’t normally talk about,” he said. “There are counselors on campus to help, but a lot of times you don’t hear anybody going and making appointments to visit them. It seems like they are just there to be there and nobody really takes it too seriously.”

“The most notable part of the assembly was his honesty in sharing his own story,” Stern said. “The consequence of not understanding his son’s mental illness prevented him from getting his son the proper help he needed.”

Perotti appreciated how Broderick allowed students to reflect upon their past experiences as well. “I think what is great about Mr. Broderick is that he gives you time and space to reflect upon who you are as a person and makes you realize how big of a problem mental illness is in the world,” she said. “I think that his story is very unique because he learned from his experience to help his son.”

Broderick believes that the most effective way to combat mental illness is to destigmatize the topic. “There’s no shame in mental illness; it’s a health issue, not a character flaw,” Broderick said. “Those who are afflicted with it didn’t ask for it and don’t deserve it.”

He said that although people may hear that changing culture is a difficult and slow process, “it is only hard because we make it hard.” Broderick called this generation the “least judgmental generation in the history of the United States,” saying that this generation can solve what his generation, the “Baby Boomers,” covered up.

Thomas also views it as his generation’s duty to destigmatize mental illness. “It is our problem to fix or improve on: to make others aware [of the problem],” he said. “I was interested in seeing how mental illness affected other people’s lives because I don’t have any family members that I know of who suffer from any specific mental illness.”

Broderick compared the ultimate goal of destigmatizing mental illness to other great feats, such as the election  of the United States’ first African-American president and Magic Johnson’s press conference about his contraction of HIV. “We need a Magic Johnson moment in mental illness,” he said.

According to Broderick, more people died of suicide than from car accidents last year, and every 90 minutes, an American veteran commits suicide. He stressed the importance of treating mental illness as seriously as other health issues. “There’s no shame when people discuss heart disease, or diabetes, or cancer,” Broderick said. “But mental illness has always been treated like a different brand, and we need to stop that.”

Broderick acknowledged Exeter’s stress-inducing environment but called for students to realize that Exeter isn’t the entire world. “Right now, you see the world encompassed by the bounds of this campus,” he said. “And no matter how great this place is, it’s not your life.” He continued to describe how students shouldn’t take current assignments and tests too seriously. “Something that I thought when I was your age was that my next test and my next grade was maybe the most important thing in the world,” he said. “Whatever you think is so important in the moment, you realize later that it’s not as important as you think.”

Perotti agreed with Broderick. “I think that we are am elite institution and that people don’t realize how much our daily pressure affects us,” she said. “At Exeter, we are under a huge amount of pressure and stress, so I think that since we live together, we should take care of one another.”

At Exeter, psychological services attempt to make meeting about mental health issues as destigmatized as possible. “We often hear from students that they are concerned that if they come and talk with someone and discuss, for example, suicidal thoughts that they may be having, that they will be sent home on a medical leave,” Stern said. “I want students to know that this is not the case. We believe that by connecting with a counselor and talking about struggles that this actually is a protective factor for someone.”

Broderick urged students to seek help if they have difficulty coping with mental health challenges. “I think a lot of the stress is self-induced and self-imposed,” he said. “But I also think that if you’re having difficulty coping with mental health challenges and stress issues, you have to talk about it.”

Stern also highlighted the importance of honesty in situations like these. “It is only by people being honest about their situations that others learn that if they have a family member or a friend or they themselves are struggling with a mental health issue,” she said. “People must realize that there is no shame and help is available.”