I chose DEB because I've always done volunteer work and wanted to bring this side with me also in the university environment. Moreover, I knew it would help me in interpersonal relationships, and so it has.

~L

As a person, I couldn't, and perhaps didn't even want to, ask for help. I had to hold on, resist, and manage on my own for almost my entire life, and that was "fine"... Asking for help made me feel weak, but simply not asking wasn't enough. I wanted to offer help to everyone, so I felt "less weak". I joined DEB because I wanted to help, but at the same time I was the one who needed help. However, help didn't arrive in the form I expected. Instead, over time it "helped" me redefine the meaning of help from multiple perspectives. I discovered that asking for and receiving help doesn't mean being weak, nor is it about the opposite. It's a deeply human act, and that's fine...

~M

I chose DEB because at that time in my life I felt that Politecnico was oppressing me and making me experience negative emotions and sensations, including anxiety, stress and toxic competition. So when I read the DEB email, I thought it was an initiative and an association that could help both me and many other people like me, seeing that my emotions weren't so exclusive but were very much shared by my colleagues too. And from that moment on I've been trying to live the association by pursuing its ideals and trying to make them survive.

~A

I chose DEB to escape from loneliness. After going through a period of rediscovering myself, I decided to open myself to others.

~C

The email from the DEB listening service arrived at the right moment. I was going through a period of solitude and difficulty with exams, a period in which I felt at a disadvantage with respect to my friends, and for this reason I didn't talk to anyone. A space where the interlocutor didn't know who I was allowed me to express every thought. In that conversation I realized that other people could understand me too, and in the DEB project there were people willing to listen. It would have been a world close to me. So I decided to take the plunge into this adventure and now, after time, I can say I made the best choice.

~S

I entered DEB because I needed to know that I was more than just the university. My first year at Politecnico had completely alienated me, my days had become only university and my life now depended solely on that. I felt like nothing more than a mediocre Politecnico student. I felt I hadn't built anything more than a poor university path and that the quality of my path was a reflection of who I truly was. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn't true and that I would react to that situation instead of continuing to suffer it without trying to change it.

~V

Two years have passed since I chose to join DEB. The first reason was to get back in the game after the long Covid pause. Meeting a group that had mental well-being among students as one of its objectives was a breath of fresh air after all that solitude. In hindsight, one of the best choices I've ever made.

~F