As a freshman in college, everyone told me that the adjustment would be difficult. However, as my mental health slipped and I found myself on medication, I began to question, "Is it supposed to be this hard?"

In my experience, people have dismissed depression and anxiety as "teenager stuff". Things that are just a phase. That there is nothing wrong with me, but that I just have to think happy thoughts, as if I'm Peter Pan and this is Neverland. No. Depression is a lack of certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin. Anxiety, the constant state of uneasiness, refuses to be easily soothed.

However, depression and anxiety are not that simple. They are so much more beyond unfortunate biological circumstances.

Depression is watching your group of friends interact. You are with them, you laugh along when you are supposed to, but you feel as if you are visiting a foreign country. You practiced the language, studied the customs, but you find yourself continuously unfamiliar with how to act. Your friends are inside a fish bowl, and you are outside, looking in, hands desperately spread against the glass.

Depression is sitting in a lecture hall, unable to concentrate. Staring at your unfinished homework, unable to focus. Stressed, but unable to accomplish what you need to do. Nothing you once enjoyed holds your glazed, tired interest anymore. You can only sleep.

Anxiety is unable to trust your memory and intuition. Your brain knows that everything will be okay, but your heart has yet to catch the memo. Your brain is a green light saying go, and yet your heart is a glaring red stop sign. This inner conflict, this inner turmoil, rivals the greatest battles of history. Except that you have survived behind enemy lines from the start.

Anxiety is yearning to escape your body, the traitor. How are you supposed to seek sanctuary when the church has refused and turned against you?

Unfortunately, mental health -- anxiety, depression, and everything in between -- is not always taken as seriously as it should be. It is dismissed. It is romanticized, as seen on popular social media sites such as Tumblr. Mental health is an ugly monster with multiple heads that ruins how an individual functions as a human being.

If you are reading this, and you suffer from anxiety and/or depression as well -- or any mental health issue --, please remember that you are not alone. It is not your fault. I promise.

In summary, this short article is a cry for awareness. Pay attention to yourself and others around you.