About Encouragemint
Welcome to Encouragemint.org. Our focus is to provide quality information in an easy to understand manner to help people who are struggling with anxiety and panic attacks. Encouragemint previously provided additional information and was a larger organization, but due to funding difficulties we have had to make some changes. Sometimes less is more. We had trouble trying to do too much and hope that our new format and approach will be more manageable, more effective, and more successful. Today you can still find a variety of archived features from the original website including:
Words of Encouragemint
Short articles designed to offer encouragement.
Resources
List of services including hotlines, practical and emotional support, informational websites, and referrals.
Definitions
Simple definitions to common psychological terms and phrases.
Positive News
Public news stories with a positive theme.
Mental Health Articles
A series of five articles including the risks associated with labeling and the history of mental health and the DSM.
Abbreviations
Definitions of common psychological abbreviations.
The Original Encouragemint
The first iteration of Encouragemint provided a series of features and services. Some of what we previously offered included the following: forums, projects, info about issues/conditions,
1. Forums
The Encouragemint Forums were a place where people came together online to post about worries, concerns, fears, and basically any difficult situation or issue a person might be dealing with. Others would then come along and provide support, encouragement, and suggestions. The forums were a true community and garnered rave reviews.
2. Projects
Encouragemint Projects were a series of community service events that we organized at the local level. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the northeastern United States hard. We put together a group of volunteers who cleaned up debris from backyard and cleaned out two basements, one had flooded and had water damage, while the other had over six feet of sand in it.
We also visited a no-kill animal shelter outside of Philadelphia, PA to raise awareness for the work being done by a mother and daughter team.
3. Conditions and Issues
Prepared by a licensed mental health professional, the Encouragemint team put together information about a variety of formal mental health diagnoses as well as emotionally laden issues that don't warrant a diagnosis. This included symptoms and signs, trends, and other details written in everyday layperson language.
Some of the issues covered included bipolar disorder, depressive disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability, pregnancy, foster care, and adoption.
501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status
In August 2014, Encouragemint, Inc. was granted tax-exempt status by the IRS. In other words, we officially became a non-profit organization. This confirmed our commitment to serve the public first and foremost, and not on making a profit.
After struggling to raise funds through grants and donations, the difficult decision to shut things down was made. Although the shutdown wasn't permanent, we voluntarily rescinded our nonprofit (tax-exempt) status in the process.
About the Name Encouragemint
Prior to changing our name to Encouragemint, we were originally known as Inspirmint. Inspirmint was meant to be a combination of the words inspiration and mint. The idea was to emphasize our desire to inspire people to be their best and to live fuller lives. A secondary definition of the word mint is something new or in the best possible condition. Think for instance of a mint condition baseball card. So we combined the two words as a way of saying we want to inspire you to be your best.
Despite our intentions the word was not well received and many people questioned how it was supposed to be pronounced. We began searching for a new name when we came upon the word Encouragemint. The new name went over well. People liked its simplicity, the accurate way that it describes our purpose, and the fact that it's much easier to pronounce. Obviously encouragemint sounds like encouragement and that's exactly what we aim to offer.
Now when you combine the two words encourage and mint we might say that instead of inspiring, we are encouraging you to be your best. Hopefully you prefer the new name as well. Inspirmint officially became Encouragemint on October 3, 2012.