The stigma behind mental health

Mental health attributes to an abundance of factors towards the human experience, from interactions with others to self discovery of oneself. Although, this topic is such a key component in people’s lives it has a stigma attached to itself, especially regarding politics and negative attitudes in one’s own community. In order to remove the stigma, groups of people have to be educated on the signs of ailing mental health and how it can affect their loved ones, the people around them, and even themself.

For these reasons, I have picked “the stigma behind mental health,” as my topic for the inquiry series. My interest in this topic stems from the fact that our brains make us who we are and yet a mental illness can alter our entire being once it progresses and goes unhelped. Our mental health impacts the clothing we wear, our physical health, our academics, and relationships with people, so it should be taken seriously. People on social media consider it the silent killer since it is not something outright visible, like a scrape or bruise, but can still have detrimental effects on the person suffering. From a firsthand experience, when I reached middle school I started being bullied and my family noticed that I became a completely different person. I noticed that I always felt lonely, tired, unmotivated, and most of all worthless, these symptoms went untreated for years. Once these symptoms worsened, so did my grades and relationships with everyone around me, but no one ever talked about it, they just told me to work harder. These accounts sowed the seed towards my curiosity involving mental health and how to get better in regards to it.

In conclusion, this topic has a deep seeded place in my heart and means a lot to me so I would like to research more in depth through recent articles and blog posts. The statistics presented in my essay and the articles showcase a bigger problem than what others lead on, from media to even people who talk about in daily life. I would like to help defeat the stigma or at least educate someone else so that the stigma goes away for them.

Related posts:

When I was a small child, my uncle owned a cafe in San Francisco. It had very interesting people… but they were all just people. I distinctly remember a woman with very long hair. When I reflect upon…

Going into my eleventh day of self-imposed isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, I am inspired to find new ideas to write about. So here are five things around my house that mean a lot to me…