If you weren’t already aware, April is a very special month: it’s National Counseling/Counseling Awareness Month, designated by the American Counseling Association to celebrate the role of counselors and therapists everywhere and raise awareness for how they can impact lives.

It’s a special month for me particularly, for a few reasons: firstly, I am a staunch believer that mental health is not being talked about enough. Thousands upon thousands of people suffer in silence constantly, and too many people are afraid or uncomfortable with speaking up and asking for help. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. for all ages. Data from the World Health Organization paints a similar picture; their studies found 350 million people worldwide who suffer from depression. That’s 5% of the world’s population. In addition, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America says that anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental illness in the U.S. and they are usually highly treatable--yet only 36.9% of those suffering are receiving treatment.

That number, frankly, is horrifying to me. Mental illness and other mental health struggles are so prevalent in today’s society, but we’re still staying silent about their existence, and how to get help for them. The subject of getting help itself is still largely taboo--one utterance of the word “therapy” or “counseling” and people are visibly uncomfortable and start walking on eggshells around you.

The second reason why National Counseling Month means so much to me is because I used to be that person struggling by myself, simply because I knew the stigma surrounding mental health and therapy. I think we all do--we live in that stigma every day.

At first, I didn’t want to seek out counseling or any sort of help for what I was going through. Through how it’s presented in the media and talked about in real life, getting help is mainly presented as “weak,” and as a sign that someone isn’t strong enough to handle their own life.

So, I continued through my day-to-day life: waking up, going to class, attempting to keep myself busy through schoolwork or social events. It took hitting absolute rock bottom--emotionally and physically--for me to “break” my resolve and finally reach out for some sort of help.

Full transparency: it was a weird, and slightly uncomfortable, process. Swallowing your pride, dialing a phone number and scheduling an appointment is way easier said than done. Not to mention, sitting down with a stranger and opening up to them about your deepest emotions and problems is more than a little weird. It took a few sessions for me to feel completely comfortable with my therapist, but once I did, it was incredibly beneficial to my mental state. Just having someone to vent to or listen to your irrational anxieties is helpful enough, but receiving advice from a trained, neutral third party can really help someone step back and deal with their struggles properly, whatever they may be.

I still attend therapy to this day, and while I know it isn’t a complete solution to my problems, I do know that if I had never started I would be in a much worse position than I am now, physically and emotionally.

For me, it took hitting rock bottom and nearing the end of my mental capacities to start counseling--but it doesn’t have to be that way, and shouldn’t be, in any circumstance. Someone should not have to hit rock bottom, or even near it, to be motivated to seek out help. We need to end the stigma that receiving help or advice from a trained professional is “weak” or so taboo that we can’t even talk about it.

Therapy and counseling is something that can be so, so valuable to anyone with a mental illness, or someone who is just plain struggling. People are struggling more than we realize--even the people closest to you could be dealing with something emotionally heavy, and you wouldn’t even know.

So please, talk to your friends and family. Check in with them and see how they’re doing. And if they disclose they are having trouble with mental illness or any other significant aspect of their life, please, please, please suggest counseling as an option. Let them know that reaching out for help isn’t weak or embarrassing. On the contrary, I believe being brave enough to realize you need help is one of the strongest things anyone can ever do.

To anyone who is currently seeing a counselor of some sort, don’t forget to call them up to just thank them. Counseling is an incredibly important, yet undervalued job, and it’s time we stop pushing it under the rug because it is an “uncomfortable” topic. It’s time we start realizing how valuable and beneficial counseling can be. I know I did, and I would truly recommend it to anyone.

To get more involved, check out the American Counseling Association’s website. And don’t forget to do your part; don’t stop raising awareness for something just because other people get uncomfortable when you talk about it. By raising our voices about “shameful” topics such as mental illness and therapy, we are all doing our part to end the stigma.