Mental health. It seems like more people nowadays are becoming more supportive of mental health awareness, which is a good thing to see. But do most people really know how someone can develop mental illnesses, and is knowing where it comes from really enough to help people who suffer from it?
Whenever somebody comes out about their mental illness, it’s very easy to say that they can just get better over time through medication, therapy, or even saying that it’s just a phase. However, there are some people whose issues are not that simple. Mental illnesses vary from person to person. There are some people who’ve gotten therapy and been prescribed medication and similar mental health services but who still feel as though their illnesses have taken them over. This may even lead to committing self harm. Mental illness is not a simple condition to deal with. Each illness differs from another, and it’s hard to tell what someone is going through. Mental health is just as serious as physical health, but it seems as though there are still a lot of people who don’t understand that.
Even though more and more people come out about their mental health issues, there’s still some stigma around mental illnesses today. There are still a lot of people who believe that people who are suffering from their mental health are just being sensitive, are crazy, are huge drug addicts, or they may even say something ridiculous like their mental illness was caused by witchcraft. In other places in the world, mostly places that don’t have any resources, people are more likely to develop the stigmatization of mental health because of their lack of resources of mental health services, therefore more people suffer.
The truth is there isn’t an easy answer on how to completely heal someone with someone with a mental illness, because they vary due to the person and the actual illness. There are some people who were born with these mental illnesses, some people may have had a mental illness develop over time, and there even some people may not even be suffering from a diagnosed mental illness but are going through a very hard period of their life. Even though they are different they should all be treated seriously with care and respect. Sometimes knowing where your mental health issues came from makes a difference in feeling more comfortable in finding ways to get better, but the difference also comes from the people who aren’t suffering from mental illness.
Mental illness affects everyone one way or another. Even if you yourself aren’t dealing with mental illness, there is a very possible chance that someone you know is. Having the thought of someone you care about suffering from this never feeling of pain should make you feel a sense of pain as well. Even if you don’t suspect that anyone you know is suffering from anything, it’s always nice to check up on them, ask them how their day was, or just make them feel as though they belong. Plus it always makes an individual feel better about themselves whenever they help out another individual.
Mental health has always been an important issue to me since it has had a major effect on me and my family. One of the biggest things that inspired me to write this is having friends and family members that struggle with mental illness and their experiences. I wanted to acknowledge in the first paragraph that mental health awareness is being talked about more in modern times, since I knew there were gonna be some people that would say “oh well there are more and more people that are aware/supportive about mental health awareness today then there were back in the day so why even hammer in this topic”. I wanted to make sure that it didn’t come across as though I was speaking over anyone or as though I’m saying that all mental illnesses have the same circumstances. I just wanted to add some perspective on this topic, I’m not at all an expert on this subject (obviously).
I can relate to this very well because I’ve had close relative that had to deal with the struggles of mental illnesses. I remember all the struggles and problems we faced while we were trying to help them get better.
--Jan Herrera