Mental Health Awareness Week 2025

TLDR: This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week focuses on community. For those who experience dissociation—a sense of disconnection from self, reality, or memory—having a safe, understanding community can be one of the most powerful supports. In this post, we explore why community matters, how dissociation affects connection, and what role we can all play in creating spaces of safety and belonging.

Each May, Mental Health Awareness Week invites us to reflect, speak up, and support ourselves and others. This year’s theme, “Community”, reminds us of something essential: we are not meant to heal alone.

For those living with dissociation, feeling connected to others can sometimes feel difficult or even impossible. But community does not have to mean a crowd. It can start with just one safe space, one kind word, or one moment of shared understanding.

What Is Dissociation, and Why Does It Affect Connection?

Dissociation is a psychological experience where a person feels disconnected from their thoughts, identity, body, or surroundings. It can show up as zoning out, memory gaps, feeling emotionally numb, or even feeling like you are not real.

Often linked to trauma, stress, or overwhelm, dissociation is a protective mechanism. But over time, it can leave someone feeling isolated not just from others, but from themselves.

• “I’m with people, but I feel like I’m not really there.”
• “It’s like life is happening around me, not with me.”
• “Even when I try to connect, I feel like I’m floating.”

These are words people often use to describe dissociation. And they reflect just how hard it can be to feel part of a community when your mind and body are not fully present.

How Can Community Help with Dissociation?

A nurturing community, whether it is a group of friends, an online forum, a therapist, or a compassionate workplace, can help ease the isolating effects of dissociation.

Here is how: 1.Providing a Sense of Safety When we feel emotionally safe, the nervous system can relax. This makes it easier to stay grounded and connected, reducing the need for dissociation as a coping mechanism.

2.Offering Gentle Accountability People who understand your needs can help you notice dissociative episodes and remind you to return to the present kindly and without judgment.

3.Normalising Mental Health Conversations When people openly talk about mental health, including dissociation, it reduces shame and helps others feel less alone.

4.Reinforcing Identity Through Connection When others reflect back who we are with care and curiosity, it helps us rebuild a stronger sense of self.

Simple Ways to Build or Strengthen Your Community

You do not need a large social circle to feel connected. Here are a few ideas to foster supportive community around you:

• Reach out to someone you trust and let them know how you have been feeling, even if it is just a small update
• Join a peer support group online or in person
• Start conversations about dissociation or mental health to help break the stigma
• Ask for grounding support from loved ones, like reminding you where you are, what day it is, or helping you name things in the room
• Follow mental health creators or communities that educate and uplift (like @groundmeapp)

You Deserve a Community That Gets It

Whether you dissociate once in a while or every day, you are not broken. You are coping the best way you know how. And in the right community, healing becomes more possible.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, we encourage everyone to reflect on what “community” means to them. Let’s work together to create spaces where people can feel grounded, accepted, and understood.

Want to be part of our community at Ground Me?

📲 Follow us on Instagram @groundmeapp for daily tips on dissociation and grounding. 🌱 Become a test user for our upcoming app by visiting our Linktree and signing up.

Let’s raise awareness, reduce stigma, and remind each other that no one should have to manage mental health alone. #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #ThisIsMyCommunity #DissociationSupport #GroundMeApp