Anxiety expert, Brittany Richmond, gives hints to help teens deal with anxiety
By Jim Beers
CHESTER – Monday October 27 Chester High School hosted an assembly for all high school students and Chester Grade School sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
The event was brought to the Chester students by the Comwell Health Communities Alliance.
Dennis Trask of Comwell arranged the assembly with financial support from Prairie State Energy, Knight Hawk Coal, First State Bank of Steeleville, and the Randolph County Mental Health Board.
Comwell has brought numerous educational and motivational events to Chester High School in recent years. Typically, when Comwell arranges for guest speakers, the programs are made available to all Randolph County High Schools in a two or three day schedule.
This year, in 2025, the Brittany Richmond event came to Sparta, Red Bud, Prairie DuRocher, and Columbia on Thursday October 23. Monday October 27 Chester, Coulterville, and Okawville were the recipients of the event. Tuesday October 28 Steeleville and Marissa enjoyed the event.
CHS Assistant Principal, Robin Barton, welcomed everyone to the assembly and introduced organizer of the event, Dennis Trask, of Comwell. Trask then thanked everyone of attending and thanked the sponsors for making the event possible. He then introduced the presenter, Brittany Richmond.
The title of the event was, “Become an OVERCOMER, The Breakfast Club’s Guide to Mental Health”, presented by Brittany Richmond, Award-Winning Teen, Mental Health Speaker, Best Selling Author, and Anxiety Expert!
Brittany Richmond grew up experiencing mental health issues, especially related to anxiety. She was an excellent student, She was well liked and popular at her school,. She was also an accomplished athlete, very involved in her school environment, and near the top of her class academically. However, throughout her high school and collegiate careers, Brittany hid her anxiety and struggled with the effects of her anxiety.
Brittany came from a broken home filed with abuse, neglect, and other stressful happenings, but in spite of her stress and anxiety, she managed to get through high school without sharing her mental health issues with others. In college her problems started showing with several other more harmful activities such as drugs, alcohol, etc. In spite of her non-healthy lifestyle, Brittany managed to get a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Psychology.
Ms. Richmond has spent her adult life traveling around the country attempting to educate teens about “Teem Mental Health”, more specifically, “ANXIETY”. Richmond said, “Moving teens and young adults out of isolation through conversation and connection is a goal of mine!”
Jonathan Haidt, who wrote, “The Anxious Generation” in 2024, said, “Anxiety and its associated Disorders seem to be the defining mental illness of young people today.” Richmond said, “I have the best job in the world. I travel the country helping teens, college students, and selected corporate teams break out of isolation through conversation and connection!”
“Teens and young adult mental health struggles are at an all-time high, and the opportunity for pro-active solutions is here. I talk to groups of 10 or 10,000 people in efforts to teach audiences how to create space for their peers in which to open up and share about how they FEEL!” There is shame, guilt, and judgement involved with experiencing mental health issues, and Richmond says that just talking about these issues is often the hardest to discuss.
Brittany Richmond got the CHS and CGS students actively involved in “Ice-Breakers” to start the assembly, and walked the students through being able to talk to one another and interact on a deeper level. Richmond said, “My goal is to give people their POWER back so that they can TAKE CONTROL of their anxiety!”
Richmond used the 1990’s hot teen movie, “The Breakfast Club” as an example of five high school students that had to attend Saturday In-School Suspension together and how throughout the day they shared their own personal stories to get to know, love, and support each other. At the end of the movie the five had learned to engage in CONVERSATION and form CONNECTIONS in order to escape their personal struggles.
Richmond told Chester students that anxiety is LOUD, CONVINCING, and FULL OF LIES! She noted that TALKING to others about what we all carry with us every day can help to BREAK DOWN WALLS, BUILD CONNECTIONS, and remind us that WE ARE NEVER REALLY ALL ALONE! We should all learn to FIGHT BACK with TRUTH, RESILIENCE, and CONNECTIONS! Brittany said, “Turn DOWN your lies, turn UP your CONFIDENCE, and TAKE BACK CONTROL of your mental illness symptoms!
After high school Ms. Richmond was diagnosed with multiple anxiety disorders. She felt alone and lived with lots of lies about her illnesses. She constantly asked herself, “Why is it so EASY for others to deal with their struggles and so HARD for me?”
Eventually Brittany came to understand that you CAN live with anxiety and have a HAPPY LIFE! Now that she has had many years of experience as a mental health professional in schools, she loves to share her journey to healing. Her message of telling her personal story, sharing her new-found clinical insights, and teaching others her real-world coping tools helps others FACE their anxiety HEAD ON.
Richmond says that she empowers others to MOVE ON from their fear and self-doubt and into CONFIDENCE, CONNECTION, and HOPE!
Finally, Brittany encouraged the students to remember that in spite of deadlines, meetings, homework, and personal responsibilities, we need to always remember to take care on the most important person. YOU!!!
“Identify the activities that bring YOU JOY! Re-connect with YOUR PURPOSE and PASSION! PRIORITIZE what YOU actually like in life. Fuel creativity, connection, and long term SUCCESSES in SCHOOL, WORK, and LIFE in general”, said Richmond.
At one point in the assembly, Brittany called for numerous students to come to the floor for a demonstration. She pulled out a large PE tug of war rope and had students line up on each side of the rope. She then had them try to beat the students on the other side rope in a pulling contest or tug of war.
She then had a slide on her slideshow that showed just one student attempting to compete in tug of war by himself. It was easy for the students to see how the team of rope pullers on the right side of the rope easily defeated the one person puller on the left side by himself.
Richmond then used the analogy that life with anxiety is much easier to defeat and navigate if there are others helping to pull the rope to help deal with the anxiety. Having support to help carry the weight of illness enables the person carrying the weight of anxiety to live with it!
Brittany encouraged students to TALK to SOMEONE! The more that someone talks to others about their illness and how they feel, the LESS POWER the illness has over the person. When listening to someone sharing with you, ask then to “TELL ME MORE”! Allow that person to go deeper into his or her issues deeper and deeper until they have lessened the load that they are carrying.
At the end of the assembly, Robin Barton. Assistant Principal and Dennis Trask, of Comwell, presented Brittany Richmond with a large poster of herself that the school used to advertise the assembly. Richmond received a huge round of applause from the entire student bodies of both the grade school junior high and the CHS group.
Throughout the entire assembly students were focused, attentive, interactive, and well behaved. Richmond was able to reach the students and encourage positive engagements regarding how to deal with anxiety and other mental health issues.
PHOTO 1 CGS Students
Chester Grade School 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students attended the Chester High School assembly Monday October 27 to learn about teen anxiety and how to deal with it. Brittany Richmond was the speaker. JIm Beers Photo
PHOTO 2 Dennis Trask
Dennis Trask of Comwell introduced Brittany Richmond, the guest speaker at the assembly hosted by Comwell Monday October 27 at Chester High School. Richmond discussed her journey in dealing with anxiety throughout her life. Jim Beers Photo
PHOTO 3 Robin Barton
Chester High School Assistant Principal, Robin Barton, welcomes everyone to the assembly held at CHS Monday October 27. Barton then introduced Dennis Trask of Comwell who thanked the sponsors, Prairie State Energy, Knight Hawk Coal, LLC, First National Bank of Steeleville, and Randolph County Mental Health Board. The assembly dealt with teen anxiety. Jim Beers Photo
PHOTO 4
Pictured are Robin Barton, CHS Assistant Principal, Guest Speaker, Brittany Richmond, and Dennis Trask, of Comwell. Barton was presenting Richmond with a token gift of a poster used to advertise her appearance at CHS for the Monday October 27th assembly. Jim Beers Photo
CHS PHOTO 5 Tug of War
Brittany Richmond, anxiety expert, guides students through a game of Tug of War at the assembly Monday October 27. Richmond\d used the analogy that dealing with anxiety was easier with a team of people listening and helping the person with anxiety, just as a team of people playing Tug of War is better than just one person attempting to win a game of Tug of War by him or herself. Jim Beers Photo
CHS PHOTO 6 Breakfast Club
Brittany Richmond used the 90’s pop movie, The Breakfast Club” in her list of things that someone can do to help connect with others to deal with anxiety. The slide shown here is a quote from one of the five high school students in the movie that had to serve in-school suspension on a Saturday. Throughout the day the five exchanged their life stories to help each other understand some of the reasons for their behavior and actions. By communication and sharing with each other, they soon became friends and were able to understand how they each got to in school suspension. Jim Beers Photo
CHS PHOTO 7 Brittany Richmond
Anxiety expert Brittany Richmond was the guest speaker at the Monday October 27 assembly at Chester High School. By connecting with students and sharing her real-life story in dealing with anxiety and mental illness as a teen, Richmond is able to teach students how to live with anxiety and be successful. Jim Beers Photo