Let's take a minute to discuss something important: your mental health. It seems like in today's society, emotions are not allowed. We're supposed to shove down our feelings and not deal with the issues that may arise due to that. What we fail to realize is that our mental health is just as important as our physical well being. In fact, it impacts our physical well-being.
In today's society, mental health is seen as something to just "brush off" or not talk about. We hear about someone that has committed suicide due to depression and we think to ourselves "How sad." But then forget about it and don't talk about it. Why do we do that? Why do we just ignore major issues? Is it because it bothers us? Is it because it makes us uncomfortable? Well that is exactly why we do need to talk about it.
What is there to discuss, though? What conversations need to be started?
Let's start with mental intelligence.
How can we incorporate mental health into schools? How can we start the conversation with teachers, school boards and other students? How can we make everyone aware that mental health is an issue and give them the knowledge they need in order to be equipped to handle it?
Next, we need to talk about how to change the view society has on mental health.
We need to remind people, no, you're not crazy. Yes, it's OK to be stressed and have anxiety. Yes, it's okay to be sad. Yes, it's OK to feel emotions. We need to not teach people to hold in their emotions because that is what encourages chronic depression and anxiety among other things. We need to tell people it is OK to feel things and work through them, rather than make them feel ashamed.
These are just a couple of the things that need to be opened up and talked about regarding mental health, but this is just beginning of the conversations that need to be had. The point is, we need to talk about mental health.
