Have you ever broken a bone and not been able to participate in daily activities because of it? How would you feel if someone told you to get over it and stop complaining, to stop trying to get attention and just get on with it already! It's likely your response would be something like "I have a broken arm, there's no way I can do the dishes."

Now imagine you are a person who struggles with a mental health disorder. Suppose someone asks you to simply get out of bed, and because of severe depression, this task seems as impossible as running on a broken leg. Just because this ailment is psychological rather than physical, does not make it any less important or in any way lessen its impact.

Mental health disorders are surrounded by a deep and complex stigma. This negative attitude towards mental health disorders and those who have them creates an idea that people who suffer from these disorders have something to be embarrassed about. The big question here is how can someone be looked down upon for having a mental disorder, when having a physical sickness or injury is nothing to be ashamed of?

It can be difficult to see the impact this awful stigma can have unless you experience it first hand. Unfortunately, I experienced the negative impacts of the fear and misunderstanding surrounding mental illness when I was growing up. When I was 9 years old, I was first diagnosed with separation anxiety. This made it difficult for me to be away from my parents because as soon as they left my sight, I was gripped with intense fear and panic. Going to school and even going to sleep were painful endeavors because they meant I would be away from my parents. It was hard for me to make friends, as often play dates had to be at my house, and if I was away too long, I would get really upset and need to go home. Sleepovers were out of the question, and I often tried to stay over but would become gripped with anxiety in the middle of the night and have to call my mom to bring me home. As a fourth grader, this disorder was hard enough for me to understand, and for my friends it was even harder. Luckily I had one friend who always understood when I couldn't come over or had to go home, and she remains one of my best friends to this day. However, other friends weren't so understanding. I had a couple "best" friends who, once they learned I was in therapy and thought something was "wrong" with me, or if I left one too many sleepovers, cut ties with me. As a young kid, to lose friends because of a disorder that you don't want and you can't control is devastating. They were confused or afraid, and a mental illness was not something that a "normal" kid had, so in their eyes, we couldn't be friends anymore.

I continued to struggle with separation anxiety and eventually obsessive compulsive disorder until I was 14 years old. After my experiences of losing friends as a result of the negative stigma surrounding my diagnosis, I kept my friends few and my disorder hidden. The negative stigma that surrounds mental illness made me afraid to be honest with the people I truly cared about. Eventually after years of therapy and a lot of help from my family (who were beyond supportive and never looked down on me for a second), I was able to overcome my psychological disorder and go on to live without constant anxiety, away from home at college with only the stress of school work to bother me.

I cannot describe how difficult those years of my life were, but I am so lucky not to struggle with these disorders still. My psychological disorders took over my life from the ages of 9 to 14, and overcoming them was probably the biggest challenge I have ever faced. But for some reason, I still don't talk about my experience with mental illness much, or even at all, except with the very few people who know my whole story. The stigma still exists that makes me think twice before sharing my story because I'm afraid people will say, "You just want attention," or, "Everyone has anxiety. Suck it up," when what I just shared was actually an incredibly difficult time in my life that ended up making me the person I am today and is the foundation for what I want to do with my psychology major later on in life.

I shared this incredibly personal portion of my past because doing so is the kind of thing that will help end the negative attitudes that exist regarding mental illness. In your lifetime you will most likely come in contact with someone who has a mental health disorder and possibly struggle with one yourself. Although I used to be embarrassed and ashamed that I had struggled with anxiety disorders, I have recently come to realize that letting this stigma win, only allows it to grow stronger. I hope to work with people who have mental illnesses in the future, and I need to be honest about my experiences in order to do so. There is no reason to think that sharing that I went to therapy is different from sharing that I went to an orthopedist when I broke my foot two years ago. Although it is a difficult thing to share because it reminds me of an incredibly painful and trying point in my life, it is worth it to say that I have nothing to be afraid of in writing this article. It in no way changes who I am, and that's the point. There's nothing wrong with being open about mental illness because the more we talk about it as a society, the more people will feel comfortable saying that they do in fact suffer from a mental health disorder and will be encouraged to go get help.

Recently one of my psychology professors showed me a website that focuses on removing stigma and misconceptions about mental illness from society. It's called Bring Change 2 Mind, and it talks about what stigma is, how it can make people feel, and most importantly, how to change our attitudes towards mental illness. Stigma is an even more complex issue than there is the space to write about in this article (especially surrounding more severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the common attitude towards people with this diagnosis in our society), but visiting this website will give more information. Hopefully, by standing up and saying that I suffered from a mental illness and am not embarrassed, ashamed or in any way wish to hide it, other people can do the same. And by doing so, hopefully we can start to change the attitude towards mental illness in our own lives and hopefully the lives of others, so people won't be afraid to be honest and open about their own mental health.