Help me understand why only the negative side of those individuals with a mental health disorder is seen. It’s not our fault. Yet we’re being discriminated against who we are, and some of us even punished. We are not crazy. We deserve better treatment than what’s been given to us. Society claims that too much money is spent on mental health. I believe that money is best invested in to stop the one who hears the commanding voices to kill instead of allowing them go out and murder another human being. As a society we want crime to be at bare minimum. So why wouldn’t anyone want to stop those with that mental instability from taking a life.

Society is a grocery store. The labels placed on us depends on not how much we’re worth but how much people are willing to spend. Most people are only willing to see the outer layer of who we are rather to seek our inner truths. The pain felt by one from the inside is often buried in the smiles and kindness given from the outside. Therefore, nobody ever sees the scars and bruises hidden within. Mental illnesses like depression are usually overlooked because people aren’t willing to take the time to stop and understand what we’re going through. Maybe if people were to seek an understanding, than people with depression will be at a lower risk from killing themselves.

Depression does kill. According to Medical News Today suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the united states. Depression is not just a feeling. It is a true mental illness. However, Society often confuses the feeling of overwhelming sadness as depression. Though there is so much more to depression than what society is willing to accept. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention(AFSP) predicted a total of forty-four thousand nine hundred sixty five deaths happen each year due to suicide. I myself, last year, almost became a victim of suicide.

Most people would say that I seem like a generally kind happy person who’s always smiling. What you don’t see is is the pain that I feel under my smile. You don’t see the circles under my eyes due to hours at night to early morning crying, instead you see the makeup that covers it all. A smile, the makeup, the sleeves, the grades, the friendliness, the caring. They all work together to create this shell in which people usually only see. Inside the shell there is pain, there is experiences, there is tears, there is an end of a blade being played across my arm like a violin back and forth, there is pain.

You never really know where someone has been or what they’re going through until you seek a full understanding of that person. I smile and I wear a mask so that others don’t see my pain. I do nice things for others because I never want anyone to ever feel the same pain that I feel. Individuals with a mental health disorder are not crazy. We just need to be better understood because a mental illness does NOT define who we are.

Citations
“Suicide Statistics.” AFSP, afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/.

Nichols, Hannah. “The Top 10 Leading Causes of Death in the United States.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 23 Feb. 2017, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929.php

I am a 17 year old female and I’ve decided to start writing about mental health so that my voice can be heard and others can be inspired to speak up about mental health.