Kevin Breel, a 22-year-old comedian, stepped on the stage of Dodds Theater March 10 and instantly started making sarcastic jokes and witty comments, just warming up the crowd for the rest of his show.
Breel cracked jokes about Yale men wearing three scarves and pointy shoes, about the curtains onstage, and about his complementary UNH T-shirt. Kevin then began his story. He was an honors student, a star basketball player and captain of his team, and deeply involved in the theater program at his high school in Canada. Yet Kevin remembers the overwhelming feeling of depression that would pervade his life, even during the happiest of times.
He thought it wasn’t okay to feel such things: going from practice to rehearsals, but then coming home depressed. One night, four years of hiding his feelings inside and pretending everything was okay, just shattered. February 26 was the day Kevin’s basketball team won the championships, and the day he wrote his suicide note. In it were things he had never told anyone, and with a bottle of pills, a notepad and pen, Kevin prepared for this to be his final night.
Yet Breel is alive and well today, and shared the significance of that with the UNH community. After realizing that all the trophies, medals and awards in the world wouldn’t make him feel better, Kevin knew that he had to do this himself, and the thought scared him.
Breel began to talk to people, thinking it would make him happy; his family, friends, coaches, and even a counselor finally heard his story. The latter challenged Breel to use his story and do something with it. Breel submitted a script of his story and mental illness awareness to TedTalks, and was asked to change his ideas. Instead, Breel did something else. He wrote a different script for a “fake talk” as he calls it, and submitted that. It was accepted and Breel was asked to come on the show, but little did people know that Breel would be discussing his original topic.
“Confessions of a Depressed Comedian” went viral. People around the world shared this video and sent Breel emails; one from a girl named Amber touched him the most. Amber had picked a date to commit suicide if things didn’t get better for her within six months. Six months later, nothing had changed so she prepared to carry out her plans…until she scrolled down her Facebook newsfeed. There was Breel’s video. Amanda watched the video, and she is still here today because Breel’s words prevented her from taking her own life.
“Maybe that’s all it takes,” said Breel, “just loving each other and caring for one another.”
“I believe that humor opens the heart,” writes Breel in his online bio. “And when the heart is open, we can talk about these topics…we can have an honest conversation about them. I think we spend a lot of time talking about how to take care of our bodies, but not enough on how to take care of our minds.”
Breel has been touring the United States and Canada talking to college students about mental health and suicide prevention. “When you have a cast, everyone runs to sign it, but when you have depression everyone runs the other way,” said Breel.
That is just why Rotaract brought him to UNH. Too often, the mental health community is unheard of, or mental instability is equated with homelessness or imprisonment. Sometimes mental illnesses are disregarded as just having a bad day, and aren’t taken as seriously.
Depression is everywhere. “Depression needs a louder voice everywhere. Depression is something that many individuals go through, yet few speak about. I would like to speak on behalf of the Rotaract Club, to say that we hope everyone who attended either of the talks took something away and felt more understanding that it is okay to speak up, it is okay to be yourself, and it is okay to get help”, said Rotaract President Jenna Rabadi.
The organization To Write Love on Her Arms wanted to get Breel to speak at UNH for a while, and members were thrilled that Rotaract was able to fund him. TWLOHA is an organization that helps create a home within their club and on campus for those who struggle with mental illnesses and other issues.
“We were so excited to have Breel speak at the university because his story is so inspirational and has been featured on TedTalks, so we hoped that students would recognize his name. It was such a great opportunity to help us spread our organization’s message, that you are not alone and there is hope,” said TWLOHA member Jacqui Guzman.
President Ashley Arminio said “Having a speaker talk about their life, and bring a positive light to issues that have such a negative stigma linked to them, brings a sense of hope to the campus and allows students to connect to someone.”
