Living with mental health issues is not something you can just "turn off" or flip on and off like a light switch. It is something much more serious than that. It can put a person into a funk for a minute, an hour or a week. It changes their personality. It makes them someone they don't recognize. It makes them angry. It makes them have outbursts. It makes them upset. It turns them into a person very difficult to deal with. And at times it makes them extremely quiet and not willing to say two words to anyone around them.

This is why people in your house should ask you how you're doing. Because by asking a simple question of "how's your day?" it may change their attitude. It may change their mood. It may change their day. And more than anything, it shows the person who is struggling that someone cares.

Living in a household where nobody asks how you're doing is difficult. It makes the person take to social media to vent their frustrations. It forces someone who is suffering to rely on friends outside the home when they should be able to talk to the people that are living right in their own home. It forces people struggling with mental health issues to lose trust and faith in the people that they should have the most truth and faith. And it just shows them that, when nobody in their own home even bothers to ask how they're doing, they simply don't care.

Living with mental health issues is not something that everyone deals with. They may have seen family members, neighbors, friends, coworkers or even relatives deal with it. But if they have not dealt with it personally, lived with it, and go through it on a daily basis, it's not quite the same. Living with these struggles is one of the most difficult battles a person can fight. It's a never-ending battle. It's a boxing match that doesn't stop. It's a clock that never stops ticking. And no matter how good of a day a person is having, with mental health issues, that means nothing. There is no discrimination. Mental health issues take no prisoners. They just wipe you out. They destroy your day. They ruin your mood. And they make you into someone even you don't like.

This is why people in your house should ask you how you're doing. If you're quiet and not talking, by simply saying, "hey, are you doing okay?" could change their entire mood. It could brighten their day. Hell, it could even save a life. Someone may be having one of those days. They may be having one of those lives. And just knowing someone cares could make it all better. It could make a world of a difference. It could help someone stick around to see another tomorrow.

If you live with someone in your household that struggles with mental health issues, whether it be depression, bipolar syndrome, anxiety, panic attacks or anything else for that matter, take a moment and ask them how their day is. Listen to them. Hear them out. Find out what's going on in their minds. Ask them if there is anything they can do to help. Don't pretend everything is ok. Don't insult them. Don't criticize them. Don't call them names. Don't tell them to, "get over it."

It doesn't work that way.

Living with mental health issues is not an easy battle. It is not a fight that can ever be won. Being surrounded by people that don't ask how your day makes you feel like nobody cares. Being in a house where people pretend that everything is ok does not make things any better. It makes you feel like nobody cares. It makes you feel like what you are struggling with doesn't matter. It makes you feel like what you are suffering from isn't important. And when someone walks by you, pretends that everything is okay, goes on with their daily life and has no clue what you are going through? It makes you feel like how you feel, what you deal with, and what you struggle with or suffer through doesn't matter.

I don't talk the talk. I walk the walk. I live in a household where everyone knows that mental illness is a part of my day. Depression, bipolar syndrome, anxiety issues, and even an occasional panic attack. Asking someone how their day is could change a mood. Change a day. Change a life. But I wouldn't know about that.

Because nobody asks.

Don't be that person. Ask someone. Make a difference. Change their life.