More than five million students across the country suffer from mental illness. Every year in the United States, about 42.5 million adults suffer from some form of mental illness. That’s a little more than eighteen percent of the entire population.
To put it in perspective, think of it this way. Have you ever stood in a room with 99 other people? Maybe you have sat in a lecture hall with that many people, or have gone to your school's orientation and sat through the mandatory conduct lecture with that many people. Eighteen of those people, statistically, could be suffering from some kind of mental illness. Even if you broke up into groups, you’re bound to run into one or two people experiencing some kind of silent illness.
Some of these people may be suffering in silence; they may not be seeking treatment or they may be in denial about what’s happening. Others may be in counseling or therapy, and that counselor or therapist might be the only person that knows what’s going on.
Maybe this person is you. Maybe each day is tough, getting out of bed is the biggest task of the day, and you sleep more than anything else. Maybe your hands shake when you are in a crowd, or when you are alone. Maybe the only way for you to cope is to sit in a cold shower and cry, or maybe you just don’t know what to do anymore.
There’s a stigma about seeing a counselor, and even more so about being on medication. But if you are doing all that you can to help yourself and take care of yourself, medication can be a huge help. It may sound scary to alter the way your neurons function, or to slow down how fast your heart races when you’re nervous, but it can be a huge help.
Taking medication isn’t about giving up, it’s about allowing yourself to be helped. It does not mean you are not good enough to take care of yourself, it means that you are doing absolutely everything you can to feel better. Sometimes counting down from twenty does not help, and the cold showers just make you numb, and there is no way to stand in a busy crowd anymore. Sometimes, it takes that extra bit of help to get you on the right path to healing.
If you aren’t the person who needs the medicine, then think about this. There is someone in your life, someone you may not realize is suffering. They may cry themselves to sleep, they may not be able to sleep, they might spend every day feeling as if the world is ending. And for some people who feel this way, taking medicine can feel like giving up. Don’t promote the stigma. Don’t tell them that they gave up. Don’t tell them that they’re weak.
Tell us we are strong. Tell us this will help. Tell us tomorrow will get better. Hold our hands, hug us tight, let us cry, and let us heal. It can be a long and arduous battle to suffer with a mental illness, and it is even harder to do it alone.
If you’re healthy, be our rock and our strength. Let us lean on you for help. If you are currently in your own battle with an illness, know that you aren’t invisible. Know that the world needs you here. Know that sometimes you can’t do this alone, and talking to a counselor or taking a new medication isn’t giving up. It’s giving yourself that little bit of extra help.
