#StressStories from Social Entrepreneurship
I founded PASS Inc. in 2015, and being in an live-in incubator allowed me to cross paths with other entrepreneurs and changemakers who, like me at the time, was balancing post-secondary educations and the demands of starting a business. I heard stories of loneliness in entrepreneurship and that when coupled with academic pressure, there grew a unique brand of stress that cannot be easily understood by those not part of the lifestyle.
In August 2016, we posted a #stresstories social media series on our Facebook where we interviewed individuals on how they experienced stress and how they dealt with it. One of the narratives collected belonged to social entrepreneur Nia Rmohan, who recounted one of her panic attack experiences:
Nia, founder of Saakshi Innovations, Math & Business Graduate at the University of Waterloo. All around an awesome person to know.
Nia
"I’ve had panic attacks ever since I was young. Last term, I started to have one after coming home from school at night. Looking back, my stressor almost seems inconsequential; but in the moment your overwhelming emotions are so intense.
Here I was grasping at breaths and unable to move; my body was shutting down because I couldn’t cope with a possibly low grade in one class. All I could do was sit on my bed crying in frustration, trying to take deep breaths.
At 10pm there are no counselors on campus you can see and no hotlines you feel comfortable to call. People overwhelmed by stress sometimes don’t want to disturb or talk to friends about the shadows in their mind even though it’s contradictory. You feel defeated staring up at this mountain and think you are all alone and need to be all alone.
Lucky for me, the co-founder of PASS kit was my neighbour. I asked her if she had any extra kits. Immediately she came over, gave me flash cards and told me to keep it. I went to my room and immediately started following instructions.
3 months into a school term I had a panic attack that lasted 40 minutes, and tried to deal with it alone.
10 minutes of following simple and clear instructions on muscle clenching, doing small tasks and connecting with my surroundings and I could breathe again; I could think again and I could take actions against my problems.
That’s why something as simple as a mental first aid kit is desperately needed in this world. That’s why I need PASS."
Social impact can be measured in many ways, but for me, no metric brings more satisfaction than the vivid stories of how your products actively affected the lives of people around you; especially other social entrepreneurs. That said, I look forward to the many more individuals PASS can help in future, and will continue to push PASS' mission to manage panic, anxiety, and stress for communities.