Every year the … – no, the! The Mental Health Week (October 10-20, 2025). This time under the motto: “Let confidence grow – mentally strong into the future”.
Of course, a column on mental health is due in advance for this occasion. Because I have some exciting event tips up my sleeve! We can also meet virtually and live. And together with Pronova BKK, I also have a great campaign for schools on health prevention with my children’s book, which is why this column is being published so early. Wow – it fits in perfectly with this year’s motto for Mental Health Week.
Today I would also like to remember a person who was committed to depression and mental health. Some, possibly even many of you, will know him. He was a guest in this column two years ago.
We wish you a good read
Nora
This content awaits you:
- Online calendar of events for Mental Health Week
- Digital Mental Health Week – register now for free!
- A thousand children’s books: health prevention campaign at schools together with Pronova BKK
- Mental Health Festival Walsrode: Reading with Nora
- Obituary for Mike Adamczak, initiator of “Give depression a face”
Online calendar of events for Mental Health Week
Numerous events for Mental Health Week (live on site, but also digital) can be found here in the online calendar of events, which is constantly updated and expanded. Many of them are free of charge. It is also possible to enter your own events.
Digital Mental Health Week – register now for free!
The “Digital Mental Health Week” of the health insurance company Pronova BKK (October 9-17, 2025) is completely free of charge and open to everyone. I, Nora Hille, will be giving two presentations:
- Fri, 10.10., 11 h: Talking helps! How a book can help strengthen children’s mental health.
- Mon, 13.10., 11 h: Breaking the chains of (self-)stigma
Also on offer: mental breaks to join in, talks on happiness and confidence, gaming and the psyche, dealing with emotions or living with high sensitivity and much more.
Online registration in advance is required for participation. The contributions can be viewed for longer afterwards.
Sonja Trautmann, organizer and member of the health prevention team at Pronova BKK:
“We are delighted to be offering our digital Mental Health Week for the fourth time now. As Pronova BKK, we want to send a clear signal with these online events around World Mental Health Day: Mental health needs more attention, more understanding and more space in everyday (working) life.
In this way, we create a wide range of offers on the topic of mental health around October 10 each year – understandable, relevant to everyday life and scientifically sound. You are welcome to register. We look forward to welcoming many participants.”
A thousand children’s books: health prevention campaign at schools together with Pronova BKK
The focus of Mental Health Week 2025 will be on preventive and psychosocial support services and will pay particular attention to the needs of young people (with mental illness). Pronova BKK’s “1,000 books for 1,000 children” campaign fits in with this focus. The health insurance company is sponsoring a thousand copies of Nora Hille’s children’s book “Wenn unsere Seele Hilfe braucht. Encouraging short stories that show: Talking helps!” (Zaradiso Verlag). The books are available for schools and educational institutions throughout Germany. The author’s video clips, an online reading and a worksheet can be used to create an interactive school lesson. For example, one video explains what mental health means in a child-friendly way.
The main target group for the “1,000 books for 1,000 children” campaign is third and fourth grade. However, the book is also suitable for younger primary school pupils, fifth-graders, older special school children, in all-day clubs or in small groups in pre-school lessons, and participation in the prevention program is possible if the teaching is adapted to suit the age group if necessary. Teachers or educational staff who would like to implement the teaching unit at their school or educational institution can order copies by e-mail from kinderbuch@norahille.de (while stocks last). Please state the following in the e-mail:
- Delivery address
- Name of the school/educational institution and name of the teacher/staff member carrying out the work
- Age of the children
- Quantity
Important: Only those who carry out the prevention measure themselves on site can apply for the books. Feedback and photos for documentation will be requested afterwards.
Mental Health Festival Walsrode: Reading with Nora
You are cordially invited to the second Mental Health Festival in Walsrode (Heidekreis) on Saturday, October 11, 4 to 10 pm. The cultural center mittendrin will be transformed into an encouraging place full of encounters and inspiration around the topic of mental health. More than 15 exhibitors will be presenting their services, including the local psychiatric clinic, the contact point for self-help, the German Depression League, the AWO Trialog in the Heidekreis and life counseling. There will be readings with the authors Uli Wieckmann, Silke Krumbeck and between 5 and 6 pm with Nora Hille. There will also be music by Rami Hattab and Katie Drives.
Initiator Sven Krawitz, head of the SemiCoolon self-help groups and host of the encouraging podcast of the same name, brings people, specialist agencies and art together:
“There were already over 500 visitors at the first festival. This year, I am particularly pleased that we are well prepared for every situation – there are plenty of specialists on hand to talk to in a calm atmosphere. Our aim is to provide low-threshold encouragement and show where help can be found. Mental illnesses deserve the same attention as physical illnesses – they should be kept out of the shadows.”
Obituary for Mike Adamczak, initiator of “Give depression a face”
Your soul has ascended to heaven.
I’ve known about your death this summer through an Instagram friend for a few weeks now, dear Mike, but I haven’t had the words yet. You turned 60 – I would have wished you and everyone who loved you a few more healthy years from the bottom of my heart. What you gave to this world and to so many people made a difference. You worked tirelessly for the visibility of people with depression. What an inspirational advocate for mental health you have been.
This imprecise and non-committal-sounding term “acquaintances” probably applies to both of us. And yet, despite our rather short connection and sporadic contact, we were much more than that: people who touched each other deeply and supported and encouraged each other.
Taking part in your campaign “Give depression a face” with my photo, name and the addition “bipolar depression”, together with the online article at mutmachleute.de, was my first step into the public eye. Before that, I had kept my mental illness (PTSD and bipolar disorder) a secret for 20 years out of shame and fear of stigmatization. I was so happy to recommend your campaign on Instagram and here in the column.
How grateful I feel right now to have met you virtually, dear Mike. After that, I kept in touch via Messenger or email, and a few phone calls. Most recently this spring. You helped me to draw attention to my children’s book with encouraging short stories about mental health.
What a magical, inspiring person you were, dear Mike. Always approachable, always empathetic, and you yourself experienced dark hours with depression, but also with the death of your beloved dad.
Through you and this showing of myself in your campaign, I have experienced self-empowerment – as have thousands (!) of other participants. Through your communication skills on so many social media channels, we were all able to encourage those affected and their loved ones who were still full of fears and doubts about dealing with the disease or who were not eligible for visibility. Every face, every person with depression who appeared in your campaign stands for the destigmatization of this and other mental illnesses – that was exactly what was so important to you. You wanted to show that Depression can affect anyone, anywhere and at any time. You wanted those affected to stop suffering in silence. Removing the taboos surrounding depression and fighting for greater acceptance among the general public was a matter close to your heart.
When we spoke on the phone in the spring, you were delighted at how intensively your “Give depression a face” campaign had just shot through the roof: “Several submissions every day, imagine that. I can hardly keep up. It’s so great that more and more men have been taking part with their photos recently. For far too long, depression and showing vulnerability were considered unmanly and a sign of weakness,” you said to me.
The campaign is still online. The last two posts published show men: Thomas Gruber and Stefan Kohl. In the final post, you wrote: “In the meantime, over 4,445 people have taken part in the campaign and provided me with a photo for publication.” As I got to know you, the last publications must have been from your sickbed.
I have goose bumps right now as I write this, dear Mike. All over my body. What a legacy. I – we all – thank you so much for your tireless commitment. Thank you for what you have given to this world. Thank you for the love you have brought to people. For this encouragement.
My sympathy goes out to all who knew, appreciated and loved Mike.
Nora, from the bottom of my heart.
Cologne-based artist Mike Adamczak, founder of the “Give depression a face” campaign, passed away in the summer of 2025. Two years ago, we presented his dedicated work here in this column.
About the author
Nora Hille was born in 1975, is happily married and has two children. She studied history, literature and media studies, worked in communications/public relations for 12 years and has now retired for health reasons. Today she writes articles on the topics of mental health and mental illness as a sufferer and experience expert. She also writes literary essays, poems (preferably haikus) and short prose. She regularly publishes her mental health column here at FemalExperts Magazine and is Editor of eXperimenta - the magazine for literature, art and society. Anti-stigma work is close to her heart: she is an encourager at Mutmachleute e.V. and is committed to Anti-Stigma-Texts against the stigmatization (exclusion) of the mentally ill in our society for more togetherness, tolerance and equality. In autumn 2023 her book "When Light Defeats Darkness" will be published by Palomaa Publishing. A book of encouragement about how to live a good and rich life despite bipolar illness - and the enormous challenge that this means every day for the inner balance of those affected.
