Making Shirts and Raising Awareness

08.31.2024

Making Shirts and Raising Awareness

by Brandon Mills

My story begins both out of grief, despair, and hope for the future. My name is Brandon and if you ever have had the pleasure of meeting me you would never be able to tell that I've suffered from multiple mental health issues; Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Mixed Anxiety Depressive Disorder, PTSD, OCD, and a Adjustments Disorder.

I am an entrepreneur out of Kansas, most notably known for Crew Marketing Promotions, which now has become a corporation: Crew Enterprises Inc. encompassing nine other subsidiary companies. I'm a bit of a workaholic and a single father to a beautiful 10-year-old girl.

All of my mental health issues are a massive combination that have been with me ever since March 2014 when my father passed away from pancreatic cancer. Then, just a year later I lost my first wife from irreconcilable differences, and then I lost the ability to see my daughter when she was just two years old.

I was angry over it. I was irritable with everyone. I lost the ability to smile, even though many said I never really did smile. I had severe moments of yelling at people around me—you could call it rage—that there was no coming back from when I saw "Red". I lashed out at everyone and I couldn’t understand why I was doing it.

When my first wife left, she took our daughter with her, not because of my anger, but to simply "keep her from me" out of some resentment or spite. It caused a lot of hardship, anguish and simply put: "custody issues". I won't go into the horrible stories of those details, but I wouldn't see my daughter again until she was six years old and I would have to file for custody myself. Family is always a top priority for me, I'm beyond loyal to a fault, most would say.

It would take years for all of my issues to manifest fully and come to the surface. I would see a therapist from time to time. But being able to go through PTSD behavioral classes with a one-on-one counselor helped me a lot, and I found it also uplifting and relieving at the same time to find "like minded" people to share my mental health issues with.

I got remarried in 2021 to a beautiful woman who would change my life forever both personally and professionally. Gorgeous, beautiful, and a sweet angel in the eyes she was, but regretfully tragedy would strike once again in the fate of love and marriage. This "beautiful peach" of mine would leave as well in 2023.

This, of course, brought all my past traumas to the surface again which would have left me institutionalized if it wasn't for running an errand in the big city an coming across a homeless person asking for help, and just a few bucks. It wasn't for drugs and alcohol, but to simply afford his medication. This moment would stick with me for a long time. A few months later a business associate of mine showed me an article of how a young woman almost ended her life over a broken relationship, but she saw a specific shirt that prevented it.

All of these different experiences and stories led me in the direction to not just care about mental health but to do something about it. So from September 2023 to June 2023, my corporate associates and myself went hard to work on designing a limited collection of shirts based around mental health. We dedicate these shirts to raising mental health awareness as well as supporting those who can't afford the help or medication they need.

That's where we found the Association of Anxiety and Depression of America. Not just focusing on one issue, but multiple disorders and illnesses. From social media to their website, it gave us a lot of informative reads with articles, and the chance to read other people's stories as well. I felt encouraged an inspired to share my very personal story with ADAA and that is why we have chosen them as our primary donor with our mental health brand. It is our hope that any funds we can provide them can change #JustOne person's life.

Website: Crew Marketing Promotions, Instagram: Crewmarketingpromotions, Facebook: Crew Marketing Promotions