Mental Health

Society is like a giant creature that dictates how the world functions. And if such an entity endorses wrong ideas, an entire generation risks crashing. Mental health is the emotional and psychological well-being of a person, and it is as basic and important as physical health. However, its perception is wildly off this simple mark.

No one makes light of physical illness or treats them like desirable afflictions. Mental problems, though, face a very different treatment. Perhaps it stems from our misconception or disdain of them, or from our inability to take them seriously. Whatever the case may be, it only fuels further misconceptions and more stigma in an endless cycle.

For anyone who hasn’t studied psychology, the media is the primary source of information on mental health, whose depiction is absolutely inaccurate generally. It is not violent or unstable people or beautiful, lonely people who charm others with the walls they build around themselves and the cigarettes they smoke all day.

Mental illness is not pretty, romantic or vicious. It is not violent episodes, delinquents resorting to vandalism as a coping mechanism, an alienated, mute student staring into the distance all the time. It is not a depraved alter-ego, it is not someone with poor impulse control. Self-isolation isn’t attractive and sadness isn’t beautiful. OCD is not a cute quirk for neatness or sanitation, it is intrusive thoughts that invade every waking minute, forcing you to do things over and over before you are satisfied.

Anxiety isn’t pretty tears and a lover who wipes them away, it is feeling suffocated and scared and too weak to even stand. Depression is not sad smiles, quiet sighs and polite, kind avoidance of company. It is being unable to move an inch, unable to close burning eyes in the middle of the night, no matter how numb you have become or how tired you are, because you can’t find the motivation to do so. It is isolating you even when you don’t want to, it is driving people away even if it hurts them and you because you don’t have the energy to speak.

Manic depression is not just an unstable person with extreme mood swings, periods of scary rages and endless crying, or a constant danger of loss of control. It’s a normal person with an extreme, sudden spike in enthusiasm and recklessness one day, fueled by an idea they cannot ignore, or a sudden feeling of hopelessness and crushing depression, neither of which is constant, but periodic, controllable and fully known to the person.

Mental illness is not attractive or glamorous, it leaves mental and, at times, physical scars that no one accepts or kisses away – these scars hurt and itch and drive people away.

Mental illness is serious and life-threatening, in so much that life is not just the physical act of existing, but actually living. And it needs to be dealt with as such. The stigma attached to mental issues should be immediately destroyed and it should be understood that the person suffering from them is just helpless, hurt and literally ill, not vengeful, dangerous or unstable; they require medical assistance, love and support. They are as normal and as functional as anyone else.

The romantic ideas that surround up mental health should also be done away with and instead, there should be an effort towards humanizing illnesses and educating people on how serious and, like physical problems, curable they actually are.

Article by Rick Sanchez, Arya Stark and Anna of Arendelle