Why is it that when someone gets an injury, they get to sit out of gym class? Why is it that when someone is physically sick, they get to miss school and work? Why is it that when someone is sad, happy, excited, bored or angry it is okay to talk about their feelings? Why is it that when someone physically cannot get out of bed due to a mental illness, they are forced to go to school and work and act like everything is okay? Why is it that when someone stays up all night with a razor in their hand, taking their mental pain out on themselves, they still have to crawl out of bed the next day and act like nothing happened? Why is it that when people talk about their depressions, anxieties, and other mental illnesses people think they're crazy? Why is it that mental health is treated like it is nothing when that is what keeps us going?
A friend of mine had wanted to commit suicide multiple times throughout the time I knew him. It was a constant battle, a constant worry, a constant "what if it happens today?"
There were days when he couldn't get himself to get out of bed. He couldn't bring himself to eat. He couldn't speak to people like he normally would, and the look in his eyes was one full of pain. Regardless of his mental illness, he was still forced to wake up and go to school and work. even though he was mentally struggling. He would get dragged out of bed and forced to go about his everyday life when he was unsure if it was one he even wanted to live. He was so mentally drained but forced to keep acting like he wasn't. It is unfair when every single day he was forced to go through this, but as soon as he would tell his mother he had a sickness, he was allowed to miss school and stay in bed.
Why is it that something so minor, like a cold, is taken more seriously than something as extreme as suicide?
I hit a point in my own life where every day was a struggle. Between the constant pain of my parents’ divorce and negative friendships/relationships, I was falling. Falling into a hole deeper than I had ever pictured myself going. I would stay awake all night long and cry and cry until I could no longer breath and the swelling in my eyes was unable to be hidden. I would stay awake all night long and question why I had to live a life that made me so unhappy; A life I didn't ask for. A life dealing with other people’s actions that I did not want. Trying to cope with feelings I never wanted, a family situation I never wanted, and a depression that I never wanted.
I would try to stay home from school all the time because it was draining. The education system and public high school setting was mentally and emotionally draining and dragging me into a much deeper hole than I was already in. My body and mind were already taken over by an overwhelming depression and anxiety, and being in the public schools only made it worse.
Yet, I always got told no.
"You have missed way too much school this year", "You're going to school", "I am not signing you out" I would get told as I begged to stay away from there as much as possible. I felt like I was dying on the inside. It was so bad that half the time when I would ask to stay home I would cry. I would cry because I mentally couldn't handle it. I emotionally couldn't handle it. I physically couldn't handle it. But yet, I would still end up sitting in class with my head on my desk and tears in my eyes at 7:05 a.m.
Why is it that not only parents but most family members, don't understand that mental health is just as important, if not more important, than physical health? Along with the many struggling adults, more and more kids are dealing with mental illness and getting pushed further and further because so many people, especially those who don’t understand, treat it like it's nothing.
You try to ask for help and you get told you don't need it.
You're dying inside and you put it off so people don't think you're crazy.
You get told you can talk to your family and friends but as soon as you do they think you're over reacting.
Our society is failing in taking care of what's most important.
Why are we treating the part of us that is keeping us alive like it is not a big deal?
Our mental health is the deciding factor in committing suicide, in taking a blade to our skin, in getting out of bed in the morning. The deciding factor on our feelings, on how we view the world, on everything, yet it is the most poorly taken care of part of us.
Mental health needs to be a topic that is discussed. It is a topic that needs to be taught. It is a topic that needs to be understood. The number of individuals with mental health illnesses is rapidly growing when the number should be decreasing. Every single day you will encounter someone fighting an internal battle against their mental health and you would never even know it. We need to speak up for those who cannot themselves, we need to spread awareness, and we need to teach everyone that mental health is just as important as physical health.
