Ever had a accident and got a bad cut? Hurts like a bitch but then you know it will heal and it will get better. Your parents give you sympathy and tell you it will be alright. Some of your friends will look at the cut and say how cool it looks and then when it scars you'll always a good story when people asked how you got it. You get out of doing pe because they can see you aren't psychically able to do the sport. This doesn't happen for people with mental health issues.
We are all aware of what a mental illness is. Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bipolar, body dysmorphia, OCD, personality disorders and schizophrenia just to name a few. Now a days mental health issues are becoming more common and recognised however why don't people treat it like a actual illness because you know what, it is!
Personally I know people who have gone through many of the illnesses above and I have had to watch them suffer knowing I can't help them with the pain. Yes there is pyshical pain involved in some cases like my own. I have gone through spells of depression and have been diagnosed with somatic syndrome disorder. This means the more depressed and stressed I get, my body will tell me by giving me physical pain which for me is back, leg and hip pain. I can't take pain killers for it as there is no physical cause for the pain. I don't see a psychiatrist for 3 months and that annoys me.
There are millions of people out there who can’t grasp the concept that mental health is important to everyone, or they underplay any mental illness. It doesn’t help when people weaken the importance of problems such as these. These disorders aren’t things you can solve with one simple sentence, such as 'if your anorexic then why don't you just eat more?'. They are things that require professional help in order to get better.
Just like a person with cancer did not choose to get cancer, nor did the thousands of people suffering with mental illness. We live in a society where people with mental illness are seen as crazy and as if it is their fault. No one chooses to get sick. Time to end the stigma around mental health.
Only recently are actions being made to help improve care and treatment for mental health issues, for example the NHS are improving awareness and focus on the duties within the Mental Capacity Act which is a step in the right direction. We need to be taught in school that mental illness is real, it can happen to anyone and that you are more than just a disorder. We cannot feel ashamed because we are lead to believe it isn't even a real problem. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, you can't see gravity yet you still believe it is there.
1 in 4 teenagers will suffer from a mental health problem within a year. In an average classroom, that’s at least 5 students. Yet no education is provided to students informing them of different symptoms or where to go if they are struggling. This lack of education has created a stigma surrounding mental illnesses, and so people are afraid to come forward if they think they could be suffering, for fear of being mocked or not taken seriously. As a result, the condition can become much worse before the sufferer reaches out for help, meaning it becomes harder and takes longer to recover.
Mental illness needs to be recognised as equal to physical illness, we can't let people think there problems are any worse than someone else's. A person with anxiety is suffering and so is a person that broke their leg but yet we still view one as a actual problem. We have to move on from this idea and begin to understand the importance of mental health. Your feelings matter, your story matters, your life matters. Just keep that in mind.
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