Yes mental illness is a real thing. It's a scary, real, and overlooked part of our society.

Whether it's anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, multiple personalities, borderline personality disorder, you name it, it matters. The negative outlook on mental illness needs to go away. They need to be taken seriously.

As a student in college with a mental illness, I face this issue almost everyday. Sure, missing class is excused when you're sick. You have the common cold, the fever, shivers, maybe you have a stomach bug, or a really bad migraine. You email your professor and there's no questions asked (except for maybe a doctor's note). But, if you can't bring yourself to get out of bed, or you can't stand to be in a classroom full of strangers because you feel uncomfortable, or you can't shut up the constant terrorizing voices in your head telling you that you don't need to be in class, or you are so painfully sad that nothing seems to matter anymore, what do you say? Do you break down that wall of privacy with your professors and tell them absolutely every painstaking detail of the way your brain works, or seems not to work, so they will believe that you actually aren't capable in any way to sit through their hour and fifteen minute lecture?

No. You don't. Because you shouldn't have to. You are allowed and entitled to keep your mental illness to yourself. Your professor does not deserve to know the inner workings of the beautiful brain you possess. What your professor does need to do, is respect that you are physically and mentally not well.

There is a huge problem today with mental illness not getting treated with the same respect that other things are treated with. 3 out of 4 mentally ill individuals have experienced stigma. When a person is labelled by their illness they are seen as a part of a stereotypical group. The negative association with mental illness creates prejudice which leads to negative actions and discrimination. Mental illness is not a club, or organization. It is a part of a lot of human beings in this world. If someone is mentally unwell, it takes the same toll on them as a person that is physically unwell. While there are many differences there are a million and one reasons why they should both be treated with the same respect.

Just because you need to be treated for your brain, does not mean you are any less than someone who needs to be treated for a physical ailment, or someone who needs to be treated for nothing. You are worth the same amount of attention. You are worth the same. You should be proud of the brain you were born with because it was made that way for a reason. You are you, and you are your illnesses, and nothing and no one should make you feel or believe that you are anything less. Break the stigma surrounding mental illness. We are the same. We have the same working brain, the same flowing blood, and the same beating heart. It is time everyone started treating us that way.