Were You Aware That Your Mental Health Matters, Too?

Do you know why mental health matters to me?

It matters because we all have one. It matters because people hurt, emotionally and sometimes physically, because of how society stigmatizes its terms and subject as a whole. It matters because there are people in the world who choose death over expressing their emotions. . .because no one ever taught them it was okay to express emotions in the first place.

Society tells little boys to "toughen up" and makes little girls feel weak for having feelings. Our education's health programs are more concerned about teaching students to abstain from sex than teaching them how to handle the challenges of acclimating to the world. Gym teachers love to shove the importance of physical movement down a child's throat, yet somewhere many of them forgot that both mental and physical health make up parts of our well-being, along with the emotional and spiritual. People don't go to therapy because they say they're "not that bad," as if there is some level you have to reach to ask for help. And to make it worse, the government then decides to declare a "mental health crisis" as an excuse to ignore the real problem with gun control.

While mental health doesn't equal mental illness, metal illnesses and mental health concerns can play an important role in understanding how to take care of one's self mentally, especially considering that mental illnesses and mental health concerns are more prevalent than most of society realizes. It has been my experience that several members of older generations believe a good proportion of today's youth struggle with mental health concerns more than ever before. Truthfully, I believe we have entered into a time where more people are willing to come forward to share their experiences, but I am sure there are still several people hiding in the dark, afraid, as well as several who are unaware of their symptoms.

In my own personal research, I learned the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has stated that "approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (46.6 million) experiences mental illness in a given year while approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life." If you visit NAMI's website, https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers, you can find even more statistics and details on mental illnesses in society, including the consequences from lack of treatment.

For example:

Are you aware that individuals living with serious mental illness face an increased risk of having chronic medical conditions?

Are you aware that adults in the U.S. living with serious mental illness die on average 25 years earlier than others (largely due to treatable medical conditions)?

Did you know that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and the 2nd leading cause of death for people aged 10–34?

Chances are, someone reading this didn't know that, maybe it's you. . .and that's not your fault. This information hasn't always been readily available to the population. It's just recently that more and more people are beginning to speak up--more people are sharing their personal stories or the stories of someone they have loved and cared about. Even so, there is still so much more to say and more to do because people still stigmatize. People still use mental illnesses as if they're just another adjective in the dictionary. People still judge and assume and wrongly accuse, and the only way that's ever going to stop is to KEEP making noise.

With all my might, I am doing my best to educate the public as well as myself. I know my own experience because it's mine, but I am not the only story to tell. I am just one chapter alongside several, and I want to encourage those who have yet to write their's into the conversation. I was once terrified of myself because I felt condemned by a mental illness. I never sought therapy because, for starters, I was terrified a therapist would send me to a mental institution (and at the time, I believed a mental institution was just a stray jacket and a room--not true). I also believed that I was capable of handling everything on my own--I thought if no one knew, if no one could "see" my mental illness, then I was doing "well." I never realized at the time that it was just another way of conforming to society's needs rather than assessing my own.

So please take time to consider how you're feeling and what you're thinking. Why do you believe you may be feeling and thinking such things? Maybe you don't have the answer to that, and that's okay. What's not okay is thinking you have to figure it out all on your own. You aren't alone. You also aren't "messed up" or "crazy" or any of those other negative terms we often believe about ourselves. You're a human being who feels things, who struggles, who faces the challenges of the everyday. And sometimes, we go through battles that require extra assistance--that's normal. It took me 5 years after discovering I even had a mental illness to ask for help, and if there's one thing I wish I could've told my younger self, it would be to ask for help sooner than I did, but since I can't go back in time, I'm tell you to ask for help. . .right now. Go to a therapist. Talk to a good friend or your mom or someone you just really trust. Consider medication, or meditation, or whatever helpful thing you believe will benefit you. I can promise you this: it's worth it because mental health matters and so do you.