I'm a psychology major. I'm very accepting of mental illnesses, and I am very educated on the different kinds and how to treat them.

Unfortunately, not everyone is this accepting. Even now, in 2016, I've heard many of my peers (and I'm sure I'm guilty about doing this myself) jokingly say "Uh, I'm going to kill myself." When in actuality, we just took a hard exam. It's used as a dramatic way of saying we don't like something, and it has to stop.

Another undesirable behavior in today's young adults is shaming individuals who go to counseling. There's a certain stigma going around that counseling is bad, and that you should just "be able to get over" mental illnesses. That if you are depressed, you have to just do things that make you happy, and if you're anxious, you have to slow down. Mental illness is not treated like physical illness, when, in my opinion, they're just as important, or even more important. Depression is not just waking up with a bad mood, and anxiety is not just stress.

I've been diagnosed with a mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder. BPD is basically just a fancy name for severe anxiety mixed with impulsive behavior. It's either genetic OR environmental, and is especially an issue if the two are mixed. We often think people want to hurt us intentionally, and because of that, sometimes our relationships are compromised. We either go all in or all out, there's nothing in between. We will go through some of our lives with severe depression, and other parts of our lives with extreme anxiety. The treatment for this disorder is therapy and anxiety medication.

You know, I could be bummed about this. When I first found out it was a possibility that I could have it, I was in tears. I was reading the symptoms and agreeing with almost everything it said. I just continued taking my anxiety medicine until I could get a better explanation.

I think I was the most worried about what my friends would think of me. It wasn't that i was embarrassed, I was just afraid of rejection. I realized that if my friends didn't support me through this, then they weren't really my friends. Instead of making a dramatic announcement about something I've obviously already had for a very long time, I just casually mention counseling in conversations, and none of them have batted an eye. I'm so grateful I have the support system I have because I know I have the love I deserve. It's not an "illness" to me. It's who I am.