Recently, a social media campaign to end the stigma of mental illness has caught my eye. The campaign consisted of a collection of photos. The photos allowed the person sharing to claim their diagnosis or admit to taking medication, requiring therapy, or loving someone with a mental illness.

The campaign caught my attention mostly because of the overwhelming amount of people who shared a photo stating "I have an anxiety disorder" after I did. So, I looked deeper into the different statements in the collection. The comments of support and relief have brought me to write this article.

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It may be a new year but my anxiety and medication are nothing new. However, this year, I've decided to stop letting my illness control me.

I need to rephrase that to 'illnessES' because along with my diagnosis of generalized anxiety, I also live with ADHD.

So, this may not seem like a crazy big deal. Tons of people have both disorders and live a completely normal life. I was diagnosed at the ripe age of 20 (I'll be turning 21 in a month) and my life changed with it. I've spent the last year hiding from new experiences because of irrational fear of people finding out and looking down on me.

I've always thought kids with ADHD were troublesome and struggled in school. I thought they required special attention and help. As I grew a little older, I couldn't fathom how a kid's life could be normal if they needed medication to function. Ultimately, I didn't understand their condition. ADHD has become my condition as well, and I think it's time to end the stigma.

ADHD is a neurobehavioral condition. It affects a person's function to do things like memorize, organize, socialize, concentrate and more. ADHD is persistent throughout a person's lifetime and about 5 percent of adults have the condition. Generally, ADHD is diagnosed in childhood but that's not always the situation (obviously). The illness varies from person to person. This can make ADHD difficult to diagnose because of the wide range of symptoms and variations of symptoms appearing in different people. Once diagnosed, it is treated with medication and therapy. ADHD is recognized as a disability in America and accommodations are to be made if requested.

Basically, a person with ADHD or any other mental illness is still a person and should be treated as one. No person living with a mental illness should feel alone or feel like they need to hide from humanity for shame of their illness.

It's a new year. I have ADHD and generalized anxiety disorder, and I'm ending the stigma.

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