People with a mental illness are often ashamed and embarrassed about their struggles and feel like they just need to deal with it themselves instead of seeking professional help. Mental illness is not something to mess around with and can lead to disasters like addiction, self-harm or even suicide. Mental illnesses can be debilitating and can cause people to struggle with everyday tasks. People in our society view the mentally ill as crazy, delusional, weak or dangerous. People also don’t understand why someone suffering from a mental illness can’t just pull himself or herself together. If you are throwing up or have a broken arm, you’re burden is visible, therefore, believable to others. When someone is suffering from a mental illness, people usually respond by telling them to cheer up or just forget about it. If you do not have a mental illness, it is really hard to understand how much of a struggle it really is.

Mental illnesses come in many different forms, and so many go untreated. Mental health issues aren’t the first thing a doctor looks for when you get a physical, and it is common to put on a happy face and pretend you aren’t struggling. It is often hard for others to know you need help if you don’t offer some sort of evidence or statement that you do. There are 450 million people who suffer worldwide from mental illness. Mental illness affects one in four people between the ages of 18 and 24. For me, the scariest fact is that the number one reason people don’t get some help is because they have such a strong fear of the stigma that comes with mental illness. That is not the only reason people don’t get help. Asking for help is one of the hardest things you have to do when recovering from a mental illness. In college students, anxiety and depression are the most common mental illnesses. Mental illness can affect you at any age and comes in different forms.

Now, people are working to fight the stigma of mental illnesses. Educating people about mental illnesses will help them understand what people are going through and make them more prepared to recognize and support people with mental illnesses. If the stigma is reduced, there won’t be so much shame felt by people who want to get professional help or even talk to a friend or family member about their mental struggle.

A trending thing in our community is the semicolon project. People are getting tattoos of semicolons to bring up the issue of mental illness. It is a hard subject to talk about – I know from personal experience. The semicolon tattoo’s purpose is to start the conversation of mental illness. It represents the thought that a writer could end a sentence, but instead, they use a semi colon and continue it. The idea is that someone could have ended their life because it got too hard, but instead, they decided to keep living it, to keep fighting. I think the semicolon project is an awesome thing and is inspiring so many people.

Metal health should be taken very seriously, and it is not something to push aside or overlook. I know, from personal experience, mental illness is one of the worst things a person may go through, and it affects your life and the lives of those around you much more than anyone could imagine. I wish people would be comfortable enough to seek help and overcome their mental illness. In order for this to happen, society needs to stop making mental health a joking matter and start taking it as seriously as we take any other illness. Mental illness can be deadly, and it is miserable. People should have a chance to take back their lives. It is possible to recover from mental illness.

Let’s work to create a society that makes that possible and stop the awful mental illness stigma because there is no truth to it. I think education about mental illness is key. It is hard to understand what a mental illness is like if you are not living it. If the issue is discussed and people are educated, then the topic of mental illness won’t be something people are embarrassed about anymore. We need to create a society that makes people feel safe and encourages them to seek help instead of making them feel like less of a person for having an illness they did not choose to have. Stop the stigma and open your mind.