Mental health is perhaps the most important kind of health. Who are we without our thoughts? Think about that. If you could not think to yourself and process life, who would you even be? Now imagine that your ability to think was clouded by constant sadness or constant fears or, in more extreme cases, voices you could not control. When a person’s mental health is impaired, their ability to think and be themselves is challenged. They have to fight through their diagnosis to continue being the person that they know and love.

Mental health is so much more than just feelings. But then again, feelings are pretty important too. Who are we if cannot feel emotions? We would be very boring people without feelings. Perhaps mental health issues are extreme feelings. Regardless, mental health is a serious concern in the lives of many, many people. And when people like Tomi Lahren discredit the notion that mental health is a valid enough issue to improve it’s current legislation, they are saying that the lives of about 57.7 million Americans and about 450 million people worldwide do not matter.

This does not mean that 450 million people in this world are absolutely crazy. It means that they need a little bit of help to be able to function in a comfortable way. For these people it is sometimes impossible for them to think rationally about the little things. Even something as seemingly minor as an anxiety disorder can cause the person struggling to overthink every single little detail in an everyday conversation. A person dealing with depression could be stuck in their room all the time dreading communicating. These are not the only symptoms, not even close. In extreme cases, mental illness causes people to commit horrible crimes. Perhaps if those people had gotten help, these school shootings and mass murders would not occur. These issues are real and they affect the lives of everyone.

If you think that you need help, get it. You are not crazy, life is just uncontrollable. Sometimes our brains cannot keep up with life’s demands. What some people do not understand is that these disorders are not a choice. You cannot magically snap your fingers and get rid of your anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder. We cannot simple shove them under the rug and call them “feelings.”