Dallas, TX

Miss Dallas 2023 uses her platform to help others with mental health care

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DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Annette Addo-Yobo is utilizing her platform to assist different younger folks shine.

“Your new Miss Dallas and winner of a $1,000 scholarship is Annette Addo-Yobo!”

Addo-Yobo expressed sheer pleasure and pleasure as she walked throughout the stage to win Miss Dallas 2023, however what you could not see behind that smile – is her years lengthy battle together with her psychological well being.

“Psychological well being does have an effect on those that put on crowns and look fairly, we regularly assume that they do not battle however they undoubtedly do,” mentioned Addo-Yobo.

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Addo-Yobo is a trailblazer – she’s solely the third Black lady to win the title of Miss Dallas within the Miss Dallas Park Cities group. However she’s additionally breaking down limitations in relation to psychological well being.

“Rising up in a tradition the place psychological well being is commonly stigmatized, I felt ashamed to speak about my psychological well being,” mentioned Addo-Yobo. “I personally struggled with despair and it was laborious for me to really feel snug speaking about it however going by means of my experiences and speaking with different folks confirmed me that primary, I wasn’t alone.”

Addo-Yobo immigrated to the USA from Ghana together with her mother and father as a child. It was her circle of relatives’s battle that impressed her to pursue an training in psychology.

“Rising up with a brother on the spectrum and immigrant mother and father there’s plenty of information that is not communicated to us and Autism is not a quite common analysis in Ghana,” she mentioned. “But additionally my mom she had Lewy physique dementia and he or she handed away nearly two years in the past and that got here with its’ personal psychological well being challenges as properly.”

Now as Miss Dallas she’s utilizing her platform to share her story about her personal struggles with psychological well being to encourage different younger folks to hunt assist once they’re struggling. She’s now a Texas Ambassador for the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness or NAMI. 

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“NAMI has so many free sources that lots of people do not find out about,” she mentioned. “Notably in Black Historical past Month, they’ve sharing the hope which is a program solely centered on de-stigmatizing psychological well being within the black group.”

Addo-Yobo needs to make use of her platform to deliver important psychological well being sources to in danger youth and break down the stigma in opposition to psychological sickness. 

“That dialog could be very taboo to say ‘hey I am fighting despair’ or ‘I feel I’ve despair’ and it is typically attributed to laziness or ‘oh its only a part you may recover from it,’” she mentioned. “It’s totally laborious to really feel that you just’re being validated and it typically results in folks struggling in silence.” 

She is now skilled and able to head to native faculties to speak to younger folks about psychological well being as a part of NAMI’s Ending The Silence program. 

In line with a CDC report, in 2021, 60% of feminine college students skilled persistent emotions of unhappiness or hopelessness. And 30% of women mentioned they severely thought-about trying suicide. That is a 60% improve from simply 10 years in the past. 

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“It’s totally unhappy as a result of it is plenty of my story I began noticing despair signs in Excessive Faculty however I wasn’t recognized till a lot later in life.”

She hopes that by sharing her story, different younger folks will really feel protected to hunt assist too. 

“What has been useful as Miss Dallas is being weak and sharing my story in order that younger ladies who see me on my web page, do not simply see a reasonably lady in a crown,” she mentioned. “They see someone that is relatable, they see someone that is aware of what they are going by means of.”

Addo-Yobo competes within the Miss Texas competitors in Richardson on the finish of June. If she wins the state title of Miss Texas, she’ll go on to compete in Miss America. 

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