For those of you who don’t know this, mental illness is a real thing. In fact, the entire month of May is dedicated to it, and October 10^th is World Mental Health Day, and yet somehow, so many of you still don’t believe it to be a real thing; some of you believe individuals are claiming to struggle with mental health issues for attention. I am here to enlighten all of you non-believers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service website states the following: one in five American adults have experienced a mental health issue, and one in twenty-five Americans have lived with a serious mental illness. Let’s take a look at those numbers. Right now, the American population is approximately 325,000. 65,000 individuals out of 325,000 have had an episode of some sort, and 13,000 individuals have lived with a serious mental illness—Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, etc.—but it’s all pretend? To some, these are simply numbers; these are numbers that hold little to no strength. Why? Why is it hard fathom the truth behind such a serious topic?

Of course, the words and actions of those that fall into the mental health issue category gets construed. Social media is the number one argument those against us use. Those who are currently struggling, or are a recoveree, tweet, reblog, or share posts about mental illness, or may even post personal writings. You think it’s a cry for attention, saying we do it so that people can reach out to us and see if we’re okay. In reality, it’s done because it’s relatable. We do it because we want to enlighten others on it's severity; we do it because that may be our only outlet to getting our feelings out. Are we to hide and suffer in silence? No. We all deserve the right to express ourselves without being ashamed for being different than everyone else. We deserve to raise awareness.

Another argument is that you don’t think we want to get better. You may know an individual who is struggling, and see them sitting by themselves, or notice that they are never around anymore. You think “oh, they don’t care like they pretend to. If they truly did, they would be pushing to socialize, or keep up with everyday life,” but it isn’t that easy. Fighting the demons within ourselves is exhausting, so committing to getting up and out of bed is less than appealing. That’s just another symptom.

The symptoms of mental illness are exactly that, mental. It’s not necessarily something you notice just by glancing at someone’s appearance, which makes it harder to conceive as serious. Two individuals may have the same diagnosis, yet present themselves in different ways. This is one of the many reasons why mental health is considered complex. What you non-believers don’t understand is that this is out of our control. We didn’t just wake up one day and say, “you know what, I’m going to think suicidal thoughts today,” similar to the way we can’t wake up and say “okay, I’m all cured.” This is a sensitive issue for many, with wavering severity levels, yet curable.

Those of us with a mental illness—diagnosed or not—struggle with a chemically imbalanced brain. Those of who you don’t believe and make that known, are not making it any easier to deal with. You see us as “abnormal,” “wrong,” or “broken,” and the more it is said, the more we believe it. The more we believe it, the worse we get. It has stop. If not yesterday, then today. Mental illness should be treated as equally serious as a physical illness/injury would. We should not be mocked or silenced. We should be seen as what we truly are: warriors.