Texan Mosaic

by: LINDSEY BLACKWOOD/Staff Writer

Mental illness is something that is pushed aside a lot. I feel that people don’t give mental illness the importance that it deserves.

As a person who has had depression and anxiety for the majority of my life, I have had to mature a lot quicker than I should have. I have been robbed of happiness and worried about things that never happened. I’ve recently gotten into how important mental health is, and how mental illness affects people who have them and their loved ones.

Mental illness is nothing to joke about. This kind of thing can happen to anyone and everyone. Mental illness has the power to end lives. One of my closest friends was a victim of depression. I would know. I have been suicidal, on many occasions, due to my depression.

I feel that people just brush mental illness off and think that there isn’t such a thing, that you are just lazy if you claim you have a mental illness. But that is far from the case. People who suffer from mental illnesses can have that illness, such as depression, so severely, that they can’t even function normally that day. Yes, medication helps, A LOT. But there are some times when it doesn’t. Some days the medicine just decides not to work. 

I wish that people would take mental health more seriously, because I feel that it is becoming more prevalent in today’s society. More people are being diagnosed with some form of mental illness, and they feel like they have nowhere to turn, no one to talk to.

If people realized how much mental illness actually affects a person, maybe they would understand how to be there for a person who has a mental illness. Just be there for the person, that’s all. Let them know that you are there for them, that they aren’t alone. That alone helps so much more than you could ever know. Just knowing that you are never alone makes such a huge difference.

Getting medical help also is very important when it comes to having a mental illness as well. Getting the medications you need and having that medical professional there can help a whole lot as well. You can open up about your mental health and let them know what works and what doesn’t. Letting them know when a medication doesn’t help anymore lets them know that they need to help you find one that does.

Mental illness isn’t something you should push aside. It’s a lot more important than a lot of people realize, and mental illnesses have so much more power than you think.

Mental illness is something very near and dear to my heart. I have felt the kinds of  horrible things that having mental illnesses can do to you on such a personal level. I have also seen numerous people end their lives because of how bad their mental illness got. They felt that taking their life was the only option.

I just wish mental illness would get the rightful attention it deserves, and that people would realize how important mental health actually is.