Mental Health By: Mary Mathieu Assistant Editor 47.6 million. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), this is the amount of people in the U.S. that were diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the year 2018. This means that one out of every five Americans battle mental illness each day. Despite these statistics, the stigma surrounding mental health is still very real. Mental illness is often ridiculed due to its “invisibility,” but this invisibility is often a result of ignorance. Education is key to ending the stigma surrounding mental health. When we choose to educate ourselves on mental illness, we are choosing to save lives. People who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder need someone to truly understand them, just as any one does. Knowledge is essential to this understanding. At the end of the day, we all want to know that we are not alone and that we have someone to support us in our darkest times. This universal longing is the same even for those living with mental illness. Despite frequently being outcasted, individuals living with a mental health disorder are a lot more alike than different when compared to individuals not living with mental illness. By choosing to work towards the end of the stigma surrounding mental health, we are caring for our friends, classmates and families. As USF Psychology student Rebecca Giese states, “The stigma surrounding mental health is an awful and terrible thing that leads those who are suffering from it to feel as if they cannot escape the feeling of being judged by others for being open about their mental health. We normalize talking about physical health by helping those with broken arms and legs. Why can we not do that with mental health and help those with broken minds and thoughts?” The signs of mental illness often go unnoticed, even among the people we encounter each day, but they do not have to anymore. We can be the change if we choose to be.
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November 2, 2020
Is Essential
