With his painted rocks, Franklin Community High School senior wanted to send a message of hope to people struggling with their mental health.
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As a varsity basketball and football player at Franklin Community High School, it seemed like he was on top of the world.
But last year, he quit playing.
It’s not that Chase Stanger wasn’t good enough, he was dealing with an opponent far more daunting than anything he’d seen under the lights. That opponent was depression.
“It was hard to manage sports and school while dealing with this. People didn’t understand why I was quitting,” Stanger said.
Stanger isn’t someone who outwardly exhibits the typical symptoms of depression. He led his high school’s student section, the Blue Crew, to a Zone 8 banner, winning a central Indiana student section competition put together by sports anchor Anthony Calhoun of WISH-TV. His unbridled enthusiasm included skydiving and organizing theme nights that had students wearing construction outfits and setting off confetti guns at football games.
“The main thing people don’t understand is, it can happen to anyone. Anyone you’re close with might have a smile on their face and be the most outgoing person, but you don’t know what someone is struggling with,” Stanger said. “Suicide rates are increasing because people are afraid to reach out for help.”
All Franklin Community High School seniors are required to complete a senior project that fulfills a graduation pathways requirement, including a work-based learning experience, such as an internship, or a service-based learning experience, such as a community service project.
It was through the help of friends and family members Stanger is where he is today and has overcome the worst parts of his depression. With his service-based senior project, which he completed for his community service class, Stanger hopes to remind other people struggling with mental health issues they aren’t alone, he said.
Stanger, with the help of friends and family members, painted and distributed about 200 different rocks with messages including: “there is hope,” “your life matters,” “you are enough” and “bright days ahead,” among others. They placed the rocks at Walmart and Target, outside Greenwood and Whiteland high schools and passed them out in Franklin hallways during the fall semester. The rocks also have the message “Call 988” on them, in reference to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
A QR code taped to the rocks, which people can scan with their phones, takes them to a website with various mental health resources, such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Headspace, BetterHelp, Psycom and Psych Central.
It is especially important for males to receive support, Stanger said. Despite making up 49% of the population, men account for 80% of suicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Men are four times more likely to commit suicide because of the stigma that you’re not manly enough if you show weakness. The whole attitude of ‘you have to suck it up,’” he said. “The biggest thing I wanted to get across is, it doesn’t make you not normal if you’re struggling.”
Noah DeArmitt, a varsity athlete on Franklin’s baseball team, was one of the friends who helped Stanger distribute the rocks. DeArmitt decided not to pursue the sport after his senior year concludes because of his mental health struggles.
“I wanted to play college baseball my whole life and I was on track to, visiting colleges. Through my mental health struggles, I decided not to,” DeArmitt said. “It was a huge decision for me.”
In a Tweet, he explained how despite his talent, self-doubt crept into his mind, resulting in not only a decline in his mental health, but his physical health.
“I started to think that I wasn’t good enough, and that’s when it started to all go wrong. I stopped taking care of my body, I started to struggle in school and everything felt like it was going wrong,” DeArmitt wrote. “I know I’m not alone in this fight. I’m grateful for all the amazing people around me that have helped me.”
Stanger said DeArmitt understood what he was going through and helped him when he struggled the most.
“He helped me embrace what I was going through and realize I was not alone,” Stanger said. “He inspired me to do this. Knowing he was there to help me out, I wanted to make sure people out there had someone to help them as well.”
HOW TO GET HELP
Visit Chase Stanger’s website: https://bit.ly/3WyuhHc
Call 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
