In honor of mental health awareness month coming to an end, I felt like mental health stigmas needed to be addressed. Why are they still a thing? Why is poor mental health still viewed in a somewhat negative light? This is really detrimental and harmful to someone still struggling with mental health-related issues.

What is a mental health stigma? The best way I can describe it is an underlying attitude in society that view symptoms of poor mental health negatively. Because of this, there is common discrimination and mistreatment towards people with mental health problems.

Some people view those struggling with mental illness as a “lesser” and “separate” species. Why? I need to ask the serious questions that are avoided: what makes people with mental health issues any less worthy of attention?

Do you think just because I struggle with anxiety that I’m any less capable of doing things, living my life, or existing on this planet? Or do I make you uncomfortable? To those who discriminate against me, is it because you’re afraid of me because I’m different? Do you think I can’t function properly? No. That’s actually not the case.

I want to open up to people and tell them that I struggle sometimes. But I don’t. I can’t tell someone. Why? Because I know I’ll be judged.

Society is so harsh and not understanding these days. We’ve become so judgmental that it’s hard to project your true thoughts and feelings into this world without fear of abandonment or betrayal.

Even to those who do not view mental health to be that bad of a thing, there are still plenty of people who indirectly project stigmas about poor mental health. How? By being ignorant and insensitive. I hear so many comments just in passing along the lines of, “I color code my planner because I’m OCD like that,” and, “I got a C on my test; I’m so depressed.” And worst of all, “You’re acting kind of strange today. Did you remember to take your medicine?”

What I’m trying to say is words like “depression” and “OCD” are so openly tossed around and used as an adjective in a joking way. But it’s not funny, it’s not cute, and it’s really offensive to someone (like me) who has had to deal with all of these things in my life. And to those who actually need medicine for a diagnosed illness, it makes us feel abnormal and ostracized hearing comments like that.

For some reason, it’s okay to joke about these things, but whenever I’ve tried to open up to people in the past about my struggles, they look at me like I’m a freak. Can’t you see this disconnect? I think society needs to be better educated on these illnesses, and we need to stop looking at them like they’re a bad thing.

I think these are just misunderstood topics that people need to know the truth about. Maybe if more people were aware of what these diseases actually consisted of, then there wouldn’t be so much joking about them or shunning.

Now society has made changes, and implementing something like mental health awareness month is a huge step forward. But that doesn’t stop people from judging and harassing.

Do I ever think this will be fixed completely? No I think that’s unrealistic to expect out of society. But we still need to make changes regarding mental health stigmas. This needs to be talked about.