You are not alone.

1 in every 5 adults in the United states suffer from mental illness.

There are also about 9 million men and women in greek life.

This means that approximately 1,800,000 members of greek life suffer from a mental illness.

Being a girl in a sorority who has suffered from a mental illness, I understand that it is hard to talk about. You want to be the perfect sorority girl. You want to be bubbly and bright all the time. You want to represent your sorority in the best light possible, even if that means putting on a fake smile.

However what if us greek men, and women, didn't just put on a fake smile, and actually talked about what was affecting our life. Could you imagine if just half of us greek members talked about our mental illness? Could you imagine the support system we would have?

We could freely discuss suicide, depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and the list goes on and on. This way we can reach out to our sisters and brothers and they could help us cope, they could make us feel like we're not alone.

I know it's hard. Coming out and telling people about my depression has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, however, I found out I was not alone, and that helped more than anyone could ever know. I had sisters that let me stay with them when my world felt like it was falling apart. I had other sisters who told me about their struggle with mental illness. I also had some girls send me an encouraging text, just to make me smile.

Mental Illness should not be a taboo topic in today's day and age. Media has started to talk about mental illness and body image. Even some of today's biggest stars such as the late Robin Williams, Demi Lovato, and Angelina Jolie suffer from mental illness. However, people still view mental illness as being weak, which is something that a greek men or women shouldn't be.

If we as a greek community could just come together and support one another, no matter what organization you belong to, we could truly make an impact on the way mental illness is viewed.