Read Sophie Turner’s powerful thread supporting mental health awareness

Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner is utilizing her fame to spread awareness of mental health issues. She wants us to “keep this dialogue going.”

Warning: Triggers for depression, mental illness, and suicide may come up in this article.

Over the past few years, a string of celebrities have come forward to discuss how they have dealt with mental illness. Having dealt with my own forms of depression in my life and currently being medicated for anxiety, I appreciate each and every one of them for making me feel a little less alone.

Sophie Turner, in particular, has been a constant spokesperson on Twitter about dealing with depression, showing us that even Sansa Stark isn’t immune to a mental health issue that affects 6.7 percent of adults in the U.S. alone. And that’s just depression alone. When you add the amount of adults affected by anxiety, that number jumps to 24.8%. That’s a quarter of our adult population affected by mental illness.

But the thing is, only a small amount of people speak out about it, and only a small amount of people seek help. Sophie Turner realizes this, so when Beverley Callard made comments about mental illness being “fashionable” now and Piers Morgan supported her on those claims, Turner was quick to fire back.

As one Twitter user noted in the replies, “I ain’t seen Sansa go off like this since she fed Ramsay to his own dogs.” This, of course, then turned Turner’s Twitter timeline into a Sansa Stark style PSA on the toxicity of joking about mental illness.

Turner understands that mental illness is not as discussed as it should be, and those who deal with mental illness are plagued with stigmas of being weak, helpless, and worthless. But she wants that to change. And luckily for us and all those who suffer daily with these fears, Turner is using her platform to influence change.

Hopefully, Turner’s Twitter thread and impactful message will change a few minds next time they want to make comments about issues they have no claim on.

We continue to look toward Sophie Turner as a leader in the movement to destigmatize mental illness, and of course to Sansa Stark as a leader in, well, everything else.