Mental Health Awareness

Mental Health Awareness Month in May, was established in 1949 to increase awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness in Americans' lives and to celebrate recovery from mental illness. In recent years we, as a society, have leaped in bounds about the newly established acceptance of mental health, 

“I feel like our admin team has made some really big strides towards trying to help from a mentally healthy aptitude,” says Dr. Hale, a Mental Health professional at Konawaena. 

Some people may not always realize it but your mental health plays a huge role in your everyday life, whether you acknowledge it or not. The importance of mental health is often deemed situational or optional. While you are allowed to lead any lifestyle, keeping an open mind is a good idealism to practice. 

“To me, mental health means being able to handle emotions because it doesn’t mean you’re always happy for sure, but being able to handle things in a way that can be productive or even just sitting in the uncomfortableness of hard things, there's a lot of facets to it, but in a way that we can make progress,” says Dr. Hale. 

Essentially, being healthy mentally is all about improving your mindset which applies to every being who strives for a pleasant existence. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects the way we think, feel, and act. It also helps shape how we manage stress, interact with others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Some see having an entire month dedicated to our mental health as tedious but, 

“it does give the opportunity to destigmatize and to normalize that everybody has the times when they feel crappy and everybody has times when they’re needing just a little more empathy from other people,” states Dr. Hale. 

Moreover, due to misconceptions and stigma surrounding mental health issues, people often suffer in silence and do not seek treatment for their condition. Mental health awareness is an important initiative to deepen understanding of mental illness and improve access to health care for people who need it.

Everything circles back to being aware, it does not necessarily mean to identify yourself with mental illnesses because it’s important to remember that not all mental illnesses are identical. There are many different types of mental illness, and each has its symptoms, some of which may sometimes overlap or be caused by other disorders. So if you’re self-diagnosing, you could be misdiagnosing. 

Additionally, it is important to recognize everyone’s individual experiences, whilst also acknowledging stereotypes such as, 

 “mental health for men in general is put to the side, everyone has been kind of ignoring it or finding another way to push through it, because mental health has always been a problem for boys especially in society,” says Jasper Felipe, a male student at Konawaena. 

Addressing these stereotypes is important to initiate progress to be made, and to validate others, no matter background, gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. Men's mental health stigma is associated with harmful stereotypes and prejudices about men's mental health, leading to reluctance to seek help, misdiagnosis, and self-stigma, and there is evidence that mental health stigma affects men more than women. 

Social norms and expectations pressure men to be strong, stoic, and independent. Upbringing and role models that teach men to cope with problems by themselves or use unhealthy coping behaviors such as drugs or alcohol to get by. Feeling ashamed or embarrassed to seek out help for mental health issues. 

While stereotypes are frustrating, it is crucial to keep an optimistic mindset,

 “men and boys both don't necessarily feel comfortable but I feel like that's changing and it's getting a little better sometimes,” says Dr. Hale. 

Although we may not see it everywhere, we should try to focus on the good! Additionally, Men die by suicide much more often than women. This disparity may be due, in part, to men's reluctance  to seek mental health treatment and internalized expectations of "masculine behavior." Men who are experiencing suicidal thoughts should know that help is available. Therapy, medication, community interventions, and workplace support can reduce suicidal thoughts and help treat depression. 

Continuing, to the benefits of therapy! Now some opinions vary on this topic, Liv Estioko, a female student at Konawaena, says,

 “Yea, It depends on the person honestly… it’s different for everybody.” 

This is an opinion of many and that is completely valid to those who are possibly uncomfortable or simply don’t see it as necessary, but I also advocate for people to keep an open mind to therapy because just like any other person, Therapists are different people too and can have different approaches or methods which can or can not be helpful. 

Therapy can give you the tools you need to deal with your emotions. Learning mindfulness-based meditation techniques can also help you manage your own mental health and well-being. Couples counseling helps people overcome relationship problems and live a happy life together. Ultimately I think the biggest benefit we can take from therapy is communication skills, this doesn’t only apply to those who “can’t communicate” but also to improve your communication in general, empathy, and help with cognitive thinking-based analysis. 

As an overall census as to how we perceive mental health, the object is just to be understanding of everyone’s individual lives and experiences. We are only promised one lifetime and you never can know what day will be your last, so ensuring a healthy mentality is crucial for being in the happiest state and enjoying your endeavors at any stage of your life. 

We often times are looking down upon others depending on where they are in their lives, a healthy mentality is just as important in our adolescence as it is in adulthood and a lot of children/teens feel 

“adults… feel more inclined to listen to the adult side of everything so they dismiss my problems. Like “Oh you’re just a kid, no big deal, it will get better eventually,”” states Liv Estioko. 

This is a common recurrence seen in relationships between adults and children/teens, some adults follow one defense mechanism that reacts to uncomfortable feelings which is avoidance. It may make an individual dismiss or hide negative feelings. 

An emotion-dismissing parent is a parent who consciously or unconsciously belittles their child's negative feelings or emotional expression. This ideology is rooted in a lack of empathy and not having the ability or yearning to look through other’s eyes. Essentially a good amount of adults/parents tend to compare their struggles and experiences to their children’s which invalidates that child’s feelings which can also lead down a road of avoidance in generations. 

It is important to always remember that everyone’s individual experience is just as important to them as yours are to you and they should be allowed to feel those things when needed.