Last week was National Mental Health Awareness Day. It was a day to recognize mental illness and the people who suffer with it. Unfortunately, people don't always take mental health so seriously. There is a growing stigma in the world that mental illness is less important or less harmful than physical illness. While mental illness is not necessarily aparent to anyone other that the sufferer, it is still very real. Many people today joke about mental disorders or make light of them saying things like, "I'm so OCD" when they line all their colored pencils up perfectly, or "I've been so depressed lately" when they have been bummed about a bad grade. Saying things such as this belittle those suffering from very real and very painful issues.

Mental illness is not a choice. Many people think it is, telling individuals with depression or anxiety to "just get over it". This is hurtful because these individuals wish they could change their attitude in a day, but it's so much harder than that. Illnesses like this are chemical imbalances caused spontaeously or from past trauma or experiences. If you could choose to have mental illness or not to, no one would choose it. Sometimes people think that others with mental illness play up their symptoms to get attention or to get out of things, but those who are really suffering wouldn't dare. Mental illness can be debilitating and frustrating. Sufferers want nothing more than to easily do what everyone else is doing, but their symptoms hold them back. There are many kind of mental illnesses and everyone responds to their illness differently, but no one is choosing to think and act the way they do as a result of their mental illness.

To those with mental illness, your illness does not define you. The world wants to use your problem to confine you, and you probably confine yourself in this way a lot. I know I do. You are so much more. You are kind and funny and smart and loved. Your illness is a part of you, but it is not all of you. Don't beat yourself up for not being like everyone else. It's ok. Your friends won't think anything less of you. Even when it feels like the world is against you, God is always for you. It is hard in the moment to think that God has a plan when you are sitting in a bathroom shaking and crying and feeling your heart beat out of your chest, but He does. Your mental illness is not a mistake. You are on this earth for a glorious purpose. Pray. Pray feverently that God would reveal His purpose for you. Pray for strength to make it through the day. Pray that other's eyes would be opened to the reality of mental illness and that the world would understand the severity of it.

As more and more people become diagnosed with anxiety and depression, it is vital that we stop the stigma of mental illness and start coming alongside those suffering to help them and support them.