I’ve wanted to be a nurse since I was two years old. My mom is a nurse so I guess you could say that growing up around the profession influenced my career choice, and while that’s probably true, I think that I chose to go into nursing because of my love for helping others when they are at their lowest. I’ve gotten many questions as to what field of nursing I want to go into. For most nursing students, they dream of working in labor or delivery, the ER, or in pediatrics, but for me, my dream is to work in mental health. When I tell people this, they are often confused or wonder why, and I can never tell them the real reason because I know they won’t understand. I want to be a mental health nurse because I myself struggle with mental illnesses. I know what’s like to be judged or treated differently because of having a mental illness. I know how frustrating it can be when you are told that “you just need to stay positive and be happy” when you struggle from depression, or not being understood by someone you are with when you have an anxiety attack.

I remember talking to someone once about what field of nursing I wanted to go into, and after I told them mental health they said, “Oh, so you want to work with the crazies?” While what this person said made me so angry, it motivated me at the same time. People with mental illnesses aren’t understood by many, and it shows with all of the stigmas attached to certain illnesses. I think it takes a person who understands what it’s like to struggle with a mental illness, to help someone with one. I may not know what every situation a patient is going through feels like, but I know that they are not “crazy” and that their feelings are valid. Someone who struggles with a mental illness can't snap their fingers and instantly get rid of their disorder; it's something that they have to work at every day. Even then you can't completely get rid of a disorder, but you can learn skills to better cope with it.

While I wish that every stigma against mental illnesses could be dropped and forgotten about (a very unlikely situation I know), I hope that I can set an example for others to not immediately judge a person because you don't fully understand the situation that they are in. There is a huge difference between feeling sorry for someone and trying to understand what they are feeling from their point of view. It can feel hopeless when you think that no one understands what you are going through, but I hope that as a mental health nurse, I can reassure people that they don't have to fight this battle alone.