In Jacob Baranski’s experience, it takes every single person a lot of effort just to believe in themselves.

Anyone paying any attention to the public conversation surrounding mental health recently must come to a surprising conclusion: things are getting better. Jacob Baranski has noticed it, especially concerning how the stigma around mental health problems has changed, and he is happy to see more people talking openly about their difficulties with mental health, countering the strangely persistent idea that issues like anxiety or depression can be ‘cured’, or that people can just ‘snap out of it’. Things are, amazingly, improving.

Mental health disorders are increasingly acknowledged and understood to be actual, real problems that often linger from unaddressed pain and emotional injury, whether recently inflicted or lingering from years past. Each person’s problems are unique, and each person deserves empathy for what they are going through. To Jacob Baranski’s mind, the questions are different now: How do we keep this conversation going? And what can individuals do to help others, and themselves?