Editors note: This is the first of a series of stories NC Newsline is doing in September for Suicide Prevention Month. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
On a Tuesday afternoon in July, inside The Bar Ber Shop in Raleigh, Reggie Winston, 41, talks about a subject many of his young clients rarely discuss anywhere else: mental health.
Winston, who is trained in mental health first aid and suicide prevention, remembers battling depression in high school without realizing it. “I had no clue what I was experiencing was depression,” he said. It wasn’t until he heard someone else’s story that he recognized his own, a realization that led him to therapy and, eventually, a mission…