May is an exciting month. It means that the weather gets better and the school year is almost over. However, it’s important for another reason that impacts many others in the world. It’s Mental health awareness month.
Mental health is a state of psychological well-being. Mental health problems reflect the issues with our mood, behaviors and emotions. Mental illness is an invisible pain and people suffer in silence. It is just as important as your physical health, especially in this day and age of COVID 19, wars and gun violence. Mental Health problems are getting worse in all age groups today. Especially the fact that several people refuse to get help which leads to a terrible mental instability and possibly suicide. According to National Alliance on Mental Illness(NAMI), * Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10-34 in the US. The NAMI also reported that 21% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2020 (52.9 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults. Unfortunately, mental health is a common condition. It can happen to anyone irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or social class. It can happen to even very successful and famous people. For example famous author and bestseller JK Rowling author of the Harry Potter series claimed that after becoming a single mother and having financial issues and problems of her past, she said she went into a deep depression where it felt like everything was cold and dark and how everything happy in the world seemed to fade away and she never felt cheerful again. That’s how Rowling created Dementors, a creature that guards the prison Azkaban in her books that take away your soul and make you feel like you will never be happy again, but the only way to attack a dementor is using a patronus charm, a charm that takes the form of an animal that attacks the dementor. The only way to have a patronus charm is to think about the happiest moment in your life. That’s why it’s so important to speak up against dementors in people’s lives.
Let’s talk about mental health problems!
There are several disorders such as Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Eating disorders and so much more. If you know someone who has been thinking negatively, been acting differently, avoiding socializing, talking about death or suicidal thoughts or talking about how terrible their life is to the fact they want to end it all, you have to do something, you cant just ignore it. It’s just like seeing someone having a seizure and not doing anything about it. If this is happening to someone you know, I recommend taking it seriously. If you are a kid ,talk to a school counselor/psychologist or a trusted adult if you don’t know what to do. I wish that more children and adults knew about mental health as much as they know about physical illnesses. Sadly,there is a stigma and taboos attached to mental disorders in the society and people suffer silently as they don’t want to be judged or labeled as mentally ill. It is strange that you are not hesitant to talk about your asthma or diabetes but fear to share depression or anxiety.When I grow up, I want to study about mental health and work towards helping people suffering from these problems or maybe do research work about these problems because of how Mental Health has impacted our lives this century and still has been a question about how these disorders come to life.
Recently I came to know about a Mental Health condition known as Bipolar Disorder.The prefix bi means two. People who suffer from Bipolar disorder have episodes of extreme depression then a period of happiness/ manic phase. The symptoms of mania are increased energy, no sleep, racing thoughts, extreme talkativeness and being aggressive at times . Their behavior is weird and hard to describe. It is a difficult condition to treat and need specialists like psychiatrists and psychotherapists.
Last week I read a book My Life in a Fish Tank by the amazing author Barbara Dee. This book talks about mental health problems and its impact on families of people suffering from it because of stigma about it.
Zinnia aka Zinny is a twelve-year-old girl, who loves animals and gets even more excited when her science class starts their marine biology unit, and Zinny is all for it. But her life falls apart when her best friend and older brother, Gabriel, gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder after several tests. After the car accident where he wrecks a friend’s car , he has to stay in a hospital for recovery and gets diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. Gabriel’s college friend reports that he was acting strange lately. Zinny’s parents are traumatized by the diagnosis and want to hide it from the rest of the world.They request Zinny and her siblings, sixteen years old Scarlett and eight years old Aiden to keep the diagnosis’ private’ and not share anything about Gabriel’s mental health . But Zinny feels like it’s a ‘secret’ and that she’s betraying her friends by hiding it. Zinny is going through a lot because of inner conflicts and is disturbed.However a lunch group at school helps Zinny’s life pull back together with the help of a guidance counselor. What will happen to Zinny next? Why is this mental disease considered taboo? How will Zinny’s life pull back together? If you like books that consider the topic of mental health, I highly recommend this book to you. You can get this book on Amazon, your local library or audiobook.
Important lesson that I learnt from this book is that talking and sharing about mental health can help in normalizing and accepting it in our community.
Let’s end the stigma related to mental health issues.
Let’s talk about mental health problems and support each other.
Mental Health Awareness leads to acceptance,
So let’s talk about it!
My favorite lines from this book are the conversation between Zinny and her counselor.
“Are you ashamed that he’s getting help”?
“No but-”
“If he were being treated for cancer or heart problems would you be ashamed of that”?
“No, of course not, but mental health is different”!
“Why”?
“It just is”
“People make fun of it!”
“Because they don’t understand”!
I’m still really upset about all the stigmas people have about mental health saying they’re insane and psychos. But that’s not true. If you are going through a whole lot, just know that we are all here for you and that you will never be alone.
Here I end this article with some quotes!
“Everything in the world is part of nature. All the creatures, even the weird ones, are just figuring out how to grow, how to change. How to survive. And maybe they need some help, but if they do, that’s okay. I think they’ll be okay.”
Barbara Dee
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light”!
Professor Albus Dumbledore
Be sure to turn on the light everyone and Take Care!
Reference:
*https://www.nami.org/mhstats