#charitymania Mental Health Support

welcome to charity mania!

we’re a fan project by fall out boy fans for fall out boy and the world at large. we’re donating to mental health america via gofundme, and at the end of it all, we’re presenting it to fall out boy as a gift. we’re donating in their name as a thank you to them.

what are we thanking them for?

patrick, pete, joe, and andy have all been very vocal about their struggles with various mental health issues. patrick’s on medication and suffers, sometimes, with depressive thoughts, issues of anxiety, and body image. andy had a somewhat traumatic childhood and struggled with ideation during the hiatus. joe has talked about his moments of darkness, and pete struggles openly with bipolar disorder. their lyrics and music have always contained themes touching on the struggle with mental health– themes critics often dismiss as “emo”, but themes fans have connected with for years.

fall out boy has always been my safe space. i’m a 20-something year old girl who lives with PTSD from the child abuse i experienced. i have anxiety, depression, and a whole other mix of fun offshoots. but their music makes me feel less alone. and their fandom– the friends i’ve made, the shows i’ve been to, the people i’ve met and talked to and loved– has always been part of my family.

it’s time to give back.

music is a safe space for a lot of people, but some people still need help. mental health is a stigmatized thing. often, people will get misdiagnosed. people won’t be taken seriously, either because of their race, gender, sexuality, or age (see: i wasn’t diagnosed until my late teens, but i had been reporting symptoms of mental illness to doctors since i was 7). in the workplace, it is discriminated against. microaggressions are rampant. to put it simply: the world sometimes isn’t a safe space, despite the music we fill it with.

because this is an issue that so many people face, and it’s an issue that’s so dear to the hearts of my favorite band, we are giving back to the people affected most by the issue. we’re donating to an organization that helps fight the stigma against mental illness, in policy, in the workplace, in communities. we chose this charity as a community via twitter and instagram.

we’re helping people find that safe space and that support that fall out boy gives us. we’re extending their reach. and that’s a great gift to give them, isn’t it?