There are so many types of mental illnesses. Most people don’t understand, and they won’t understand. You’ll explain time and time again why things are the way they are, you'll tell warn them beforehand about what's gonna happen. Most people seem very accepting and willing to help, and sometimes that may be true. There will also be the people who run away and refuse to understand once your disorder begins to act up.

Things can go from “I understand if you need anything let me know” to “why can’t you just calm down?" and "Where is this coming from?”

Suffering from anxiety has taught me that not everyone understands. Small tasks seem like a lot and big tasks seem impossible and when you try to make things work you get called OCD. Mental disorders are not adjectives, you cannot “act anorexic” and saying “you're so bipolar” is not a real thing. You live with disorders like Bi-Polar disease and you fight like hell every day to eat normally. Some people will never grasp onto this, they will never understand that you never fully recover because it’s a constant battle every day.

My message to you is that you don't need those people. You have you, and as messed up as things may get you are your best asset. You are the one who can put beauty and love where your mind hurts you. Nobody knows you better than you know yourself and even when pulling yourself back up may seem like the hardest thing, you can, in fact, do it. We live in a society where people are willing to sign the cast of a broken bone but won’t take the same approach to depression or anxiety.

The world won't change unless we make it change and while people do not validate the severeness of having a mental illness, you know, and so many others know. This letter is to tell you that you are stronger than you could ever imagine, that just because you can’t see what's wrong on an x-ray does not diminish the battle you fight.