Hello to all my lovely readers! So mental illness awareness week is coming up (October 1-7) and as someone who strongly supports defeating mental illness stigmatizisms and promoting awareness, I have decided to write a lot of mental health articles leading up to and during mental health week and for the rest of the month of October to help create awareness and to help save a life.

So, probably one of the most important things to start off with is knowing what you should and shouldn't say to a mentally ill person. There are many things that are just not okay to say, but because people have misunderstood mental illnesses for so long, we have been able to normalize a lot of inappropriate vocab. Well, NOT TODAY!

1) "Oh my gosh I'm so depressed/ she's so bipolar/ yeah I"m pretty OCD too "

No. Just no. You're an intelligent person, don't use a mental illness instead of using an adjective. You're not depressed, you're down. You aren't bipolar, you're probably feeling moody. You aren't OCD, you just like things to be a specific way.

Instead you could say: "Oh! I'm so stressed/ I feel so out of balance."

2) "Yeah I know how you feel, I get a bit bipolar, too sometimes"

Oh man, I hate this one, because it is such an unintelligent and ridiculous thing to say, yet I hear people say it all the time. First of all, you have no idea what you're saying. Bipolar disorder is when you suffer from periods of mania or hypo-mania episodes often followed by periods of depression. These episodes can also bring along symptoms of psychosis, which aren't fun either. The spectrum of mood for a bipolar sufferer is much larger than anyone without it; i.e. while you may feel sad or upset, a bipolar sufferer may feel depressed, exhausted and/or suicidal. While you may be feeling happy or ecstatic, a bipolar may be feeling impulsive, manic, euphoric, have racing thoughts or will be unable to sleep well for weeks or months. These are only a few symptoms, but essentially you can see that there is a complete difference.

Instead, you could say: "I don't really know what that's like, could you explain it to me?"

3) "Oh so, you're crazy?"

No, no no. People who are mentally ill are not crazy, they are simply mentally ill. Getting rid of terrible labels like crazy, suicidal, or cutter is one of the first steps to becoming aware and destroying these awful stigmas.

Instead, you could say: "Oh that must be difficult, I'd like to understand it better, could you tell me more?"

4) "Are you doing it for attention or drama?"

I honestly hate this kind of thing. It's like putting a gun in a suicidal person's hand and daring them to pull the trigger. When someone is trying to call attention to their issues, it's usually a cry for help and as a human being, you should listen and care. Whether they are truly doing whatever it is for attention or not doesn't matter, wouldn't you rather they be safe and okay?

Instead, you could say: "Are you alright? Let's talk about it"

5) "Just cheer up!"

Holy crap, I'm cured! Not really. This is by far one of the most useless and also irritating comments I've heard, but it still doesn't stop people from saying it. Mental illness isn't like a stomach ache, you can't take a pill and have it healed in a few days. A mental illness is like having an open wound, which refuses to heal, and that only you can see. So, instead of people being understanding that you are going through something, they act like nothing is wrong. Mental illnesses aren't like light switches, I can't just cheer up when my brain tells me to hibernate.

Instead, you could say: "I'm here for you/ Do you want a hug?" <---- Hugs are amazing

6) "I'm here for you" --> but don't mean it

Please, please, please only say this if you truly mean it. If you're just saying this to be nice, please don't. Why? Because mental illness doesn't have a schedule, it doesn't decide to happen when it's best convenient for its sufferer, it doesn't care about the person being affected or how their life will be turned around. So when it's 4:00 am and I decide to call you, but you're suddenly too preoccupied to care, I won't decide to call you when something worse happens.

Two things to know about people who suffer from mental illness:

1) They rarely call for help, because they often believe that they are a burden. (YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN! YOU ARE WONDERFUL!)

2) If someone does call, take it seriously! You may be the one thing they've got. I can't speak for everyone, I can only speak for people I have known.

Instead you could say: "I am here for you" (and absolutly mean it).