Throughout life, I've heard people say things about not wanting anyone to know about the demons that they deal with in their head. There seems to be some kind of negative connotation surrounding mental illness, and I for one, am not okay with it.

I've dealt with my own issues in my head. I wish I could tell you that they are in the past, but in fact, I am still dealing with them every single day of my life. It is probably one of the most frustrating things I have had to deal with because I often feel alone in it. I feel like since I write inspiring Odyssey articles every week that I should have my life together, right?

Wrong.

No one has a picture perfect life. I am so guilty of trying to make everyone think that I have my life together and portray myself to be extremely put together, but the truth is that I am not at all. I procrastinate on my schoolwork, just like everyone else. I push away my friends when things get hard. I deal with anxiety and depression on a daily basis. So please don't look at me and think I have everything together because I most certainly do not.

Now that I have that off my chest, I need to say that one of the most powerful lessons I've learned in the past few months is that there is nothing wrong with not being okay. Having a mental illness doesn't mean that you're damaged, and asking for help doesn't mean you're weak. In fact, I think one of the strongest acts is asking for help. It takes some real courage to face your demons head on and say that you need help, instead of just pushing them away and acting like they don't exist. Trust me, I've been there too.

Nowadays with social media, it's really easy to get depressed when looking at everyone else's life and comparing it to our own. No matter how many times people tell us that we can't compare our lives to someone else's, we just don't listen because their Instagram is so adventurous that we just think there couldn't be any real problems there.

We have to stop pretending like people's problems make them weak or that there's something wrong with them. So often people don't want to come forward because they think that something is wrong with them and that just isn't the case. There shouldn't be a negative stigma around mental illness, because it's something that people can't control.

The most important thing is that people who struggle with things in their head feel loved. It is so important that they feel like they can reach out, myself included. I promise you know at least one person who struggles with the thoughts in their head, and reaching out could lessen the pain so much.